12/26/2022
I will take a moment to wish literally everyone I know a very Merry Christmas!! For what easily could have been, and based on the devil's plans, should have been a disastrous Christmas, our family was blessed with one of the most fun, most uniting, most enjoyable Christmas' we have had in the last few years. I'm probably going to go off on a rant.
I frequently say this about certain circumstances, but I could almost write a book about the forces that tried to keep my children from being at their grandparents for Christmas, to keep us from being with family, for us sharing in the joy and the spirit of Christmas. I am standing on the bank of our grandparents property looking out over the Rogue River listening to it lapping the bank, as those sounds share memories of my childhood. I think about the special times that I had the luxury of spending here and the opportunity of being able to give that to my kids and to Shelly, the games we played the puzzles the laughter the movies, the stories, my mom reciting The Night Before Christmas by heart, the Christmas Eve sermon...Just Shelly and me getting there was a miracle, the story of what it took for us to make it to the church last night, unsafely.
On the most dangerous stretches of the road driving along the mountain, our car kept losing power and shutting off, the stabilitrak taking away steering. It was getting to the point where we felt our safety was in jeopardy. We had pulled over five previous times on a road where there was no shoulder along the mountain. We had finally made it to a place where it was safe to turn around, and Shelly said, I just wanted to go to church tonight, I don't want the Devil to take that from us. As we sat in the car with the engine off, she prayed for the devil to leave our car so we could make it to church.
After she prayed, I started our car up and we drove the rest of the way unencumbered and got to listen to the sermon. That was a miracle, in fact getting there safely was a miracle. We sometimes think of miracles as being Grand things, being cured of things, having great burdens removed from us, but oftentimes it's simply the Lord's protection over us as we go about our day today lives, not understanding or seeing or recognizing the Devil's intentions.
Then I think about the Miracle of Christmas, that God sent his Son to us, to live a perfect life, to die perfectly for us so that we can live failed lives yet if we have faith and trust in him, and with that, not through our works, but by failing our best on a daily basis, to try and live a Christ-like life and to treat others with love and compassion, to give more than we have and expect nothing in return, (failing again, because it's kind of impossible)regardless of the outcome, if our Faith is in HIM, we WIN. We are called to love our neighbors, to share The Truth, and be good, kind, loving human beings. I love Christmas! I love everything that it biblically stands for and I love everything that it makes me feel and I am so unbelievably and deeply grateful for the people that have helped us in every capacity get to a place where I can, not only start caring for my community but also start providing again for my family. As of 5 days ago this was my scariest Christmas in the last 3 years, which sounds crazy because 2020 and 2021 were insane, but.... It's 3:01 a.m., my children somehow had presents, I put my phone down for 5 hours the last 2 days, (I'm so sorry to the 63 texters) but I finally got to be a husband and dad again on Christmas.
Thank you for being the best and most supportive community EVER