Storm Sisters Blog Returns

 

Hi Friends–I tried doing an email newsletter for many months, but I realized I wasn’t connecting well with you and that my emails often got labeled as spam. So . . .  let’s try the blog again.  This  will have more of the feel of a monthly newsletter with an eclectic mix of bits meant to encourage you. As always, I welcome feedback.

A Christmas Recipe

During junior high I started making Christmas cookies with my friend, Roberta. Mom gave me her favorite recipes and let us take over the kitchen. Lots of laughs and lots of flour everywhere. And, yes, lots of nibbling.

I don’t make as many cookies these days, but I do think of my mom and Roberta when I do. And I recently rediscovered this recipe from a family friend, Ruth Rumley. I remember making these with her one year and think I’ll make them this year for work colleagues. I tell myself they are healthier than traditional cookies because they contain cereal. (I know that isn’t true, but it sounds good!)

Finding Gratitude at Christmas

For the last couple of days I have putzed around my house decorating. I expected to revel in it. I love bringing light and color to my house in the winter. I didn’t expect to find myself awash in memories that brought tears to my eyes.

Mom got sick at Thanksgiving in 2005 and then by Christmas that year she had become so not herself. That Christmas I didn’t know how to help my mom and also celebrate Christmas with my family. I have never felt so stretched and so inadequate.

So, why do I write about this now?

I know that some of you find yourself grieving and missing loved ones this Christmas just as I do. And maybe your kids, like mine, have moved out of the nest and you just miss the noise and joy of celebrating Christmas with them. Maybe you miss the traditions, like making cookies. I know that some of you miss that stocking on the mantle of one that you loved and lost through death or divorce.

Somehow holidays seem to bring sorrow and loss into hyper focus.

And yet when I sit and read the story of the first Christmas in Luke 2, I see joy. It oozes through the plot twist and turns and it surprises the main characters.

I return to Luke 2 every year during the month of December and read and reread and savor the sights and sounds of that first Christmas. This year I have spent a lot of time thinking about the shepherds. I’ve come to really like these fellows. They probably smelled like the sheep and fields; they didn’t get a lot of respect in their society–just doing a simple job that didn’t require much training or education.

I LOVE that God revealed the birth of the savior of the world to these men.

As the angel choir withdrew into heaven, the sheepherders talked it over. “Let’s get over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us.” They left, running, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. Seeing was believing. They told everyone they met what the angels had said about this child. All who heard the sheepherders were impressed.

 Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself. The sheepherders returned and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen. It turned out exactly the way they’d been told!  (Luke 2: 15-20, MSG)

The shepherds heard the angels, saw the savior, and just had to celebrate, “let loose.”

May we remember these shepherds and their response to the words of the angel: “Don’t be afraid. I’m here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David’s town. . . .” (Luke 2:10, MSG)

In the midst of grief and struggle with change at Christmas, let’s remind ourselves to look for joy and remember that first Christmas, This calendar helps me do that. Every day after I read the Christmas story in Luke 2, I write down a word or two that pulls me back to the joy of Christmas, a joy proclaimed then and now, “FEAR NOT!”