December Daily: Day 24

Day 24

Christmas Eve
We spent our Christmas Eve
enjoying the amazing service at our church,
we love it and have only missed one in 7 years,
and then we went to a sweet friend's house for Christmas Dinner.
We had a delicious dinner, ate cheesecakes and coconut cream pie for dessert,
read a Christmas story to the children and opened a few gifts.
Seed catalogs were browsed through and ideas were swapped.
Hugs and kisses, and "to all a good night" were said.
I tucked ,y little family into bed and stayed up until
2am wrapping gifts. (Don't ever do that to yourself!)
That, in a nutshell, was our night.

But, I have a little story to tell.
We had never been to our friend's house before,
we have known them for several years
from the Bible study that we both went to,
but never had a reason to venture to each others homes.
Until this day.
As we were given the tour of the house,
little thing started catching my attention,
the bubble lights on the beautiful Christmas tree,
a very old space heater in the TV room,
a hand-embroidered tablecloth
purchased on a missions trip to the Phillipians,
the candle-lit Christmas nativity carousel on the piano,
and blue patterned china used dinner.
Just little things and seemingly insignificant to others,
but startlingly familiar to me
because my mother and my grandmother
had all of those same things in their homes as I was growing up.


The bubble lights on the giant Christmas tree on the farm in Kansas,
the space heater that we moved from room to room
with us to take the chill out of the air,
the hand-embroidered linens my grandmother
and mother had brought home
from their mission trip to the Phillipians,
the nativity that we would beg my Dad to light every evening and we would always watch with awe filled wonder. It was on of my favorite decorations.
The blue china that my mom only had a few pieces of
but had just enough for the five of us.

And I kept remarking on all of this to my friends, Mary and Debbi.
At the end of the evening,
I asked Mary for a glass to have a drink of water.
She pointed me to the cupboard and as I opened the door
I laughed as I pulled out a glass.
Because this glass was identical
to the ones my mother had while I was growing up.
And I said to Mary,
I'm sorry to keep saying this because it sounds so strange,
but my Mom has these glasses. I grew up drinking out of them.
Why does this keep happening tonight?"


And Debbi came over and put her arm around me,
and told me a little story about "hugs" from God.
And how sometimes when you just need a "hug"
God sends a little something your way that will
remind you of His love.
And these were all little reminders of His love
for me.

And I'm sure this all sounds ridiculous and strange to you,
but this Christmas was the 1st Christmas in my entire life
that I have spent away from my family.
Usually our home is full of family and merrymaking,
but this year it just didn't work out for everyone to come.
And even though I was "ok" with all of that
there was still a little bit of sadness and loneliness
from not having my extended family with me
during this Christmas holiday.
So to have all these little reminders, or hugs, if you will
was quite a little miracle just special for me.
A reminder of my mother's and grandmother's love
for me
and all the beautiful Christmas memories that I have
because of them and with them.
It was a blessing and truly, a hug to my heart.
And that is my little Christmas miracle story.