The weekend is over and it’s now the ‘Day After’!  So how was everyone’s Christmas?  Ours was lovely!  Since Ian wasn’t home, and our family gathering was postponed until next Saturday, Lewis and I spent the day home here, reading, cooking, eating, relaxing … just having a great day together!  We had thought about visiting my brother and his family, but he was sick, so things were postponed there as well.  We also had an invite to go to his sister’s house, but since we’ll be going there next week, we just opted to stay home for the day.  We had sunshine and about 44* today, so we didn’t have that white Christmas we so hoped for! 

Well, we had to eat, so for Christmas dinner, we decided on an English roast with red potatoes, carrots, and sweet onions all cooked up nice and tender in my special gravy.  We had buttered herbed noodles on the side, with brussel sprouts cooked in a buttery herbed chicken broth … now who doesn’t like brussel sprouts?!!  Even my son liked those when he was younger … that’s sort of unusual for a child to eat a brussel sprout, but he sure enough did!  He called us a couple of times today.  He had plans at three different places and had a wonderful day, although he is fighting a cold with a cough.  As a mom, it’s hard not being there to give him what he needs to feel better …  hey, that was my job for all those years … and moms care about those things, no matter how old our children get!  

So, tell me about your Christmas day … share a highlight or a special blessing you received … and now that Christmas is over, how long do you leave up your decorations, that is, if you have them up this year?  We didn’t due to our upcoming move … but we got a lot of beautiful Christmas cards … thanks to many of you out there in Xangaland!  Those were so fun to receive from you!  Be blessed, and have a great Wednesday, everyone!

Hugs,
~ Deborah <><


CRAFTED BY A MASTER’S HAND
~ T. Huff

Have you ever stopped and spent time watching the actual process of glassblowing?  It is an awesome procedure and must be done by a master craftsman—one who is talented, patient, skilled, and willing to wait for that perfect shape to come out of the fire. 

Glassblowing is defined as the process of forming glass into useful shapes while the glass is in a molten, semi-liquid state.  Traditionally, glass was made from raw materials, such as sand, limestone, and other compounds, and then melted in the furnace.  Glassblowing may involve several trips to the furnace and various special tools.  It takes much practice and work to come out with the beautiful, marketable pieces that we admire and buy today.

Jesus, the master craftsman, picks us up as raw material, with nothing much to be proud of.  He takes us and begins to apply the heat that is needed to make us the best and most beautiful that we can be.  Do we always like it when the heat is applied?  That would be a great, big resounding “No!”, but to burn out all the impurities we must submit and become pliable.  Oh, to be molded by His hands and come out that perfect specimen that He desires and can use!

Glass is fragile, and so are we at different times during our Christian walk, in each different season of our lives.  As did the psalmist, we may have to pray, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalms 51:10).  Then Jesus throws us right back in the fire to remold, to remake, and to reshape.  Sometimes we put up a fight, and sometimes we are willing to be remade, but, when He says it is time to come out of the fire, we are formed into His shape and we see through His eyes—we finally understand.  We are His special children and He loves us whatever place we are in.

When God works in us, the will, being changed and sweetly breathed upon by the Spirit of God,
desire and acts, not from compulsion, but responsively.
~ Martin Luther

The vinedresser is never nearer the branches then when he is pruning them.
~ David Jeremiah