A Gift From The Heart.

Carey White sat outside in the early morning coolness, this was a nice time of day, she thought, no children yet, just the birds and me, and time to think about another curve the year had dumped. 

The curve happened as she was on the way to accept an invitation to a Christmas Eve Service at a Church that was a ten minute walk from the house they lived in, Emma was the first to notice her father Bruce, she was also the first to give him a hug. Kirsty and Andrew needed some encouragement and a nod from Carey to join their sister and give their father a hug too.


Emma was the talkative one, she told her dad where they were going and not wanting to upset Emma and she guessed Kirsty and Andrew, Carey shrugged and said that Bruce could join them. He should have warned her that he was going to show up Carey had thought.

Carey was surprised that children presented the story about the birth of Jesus, for the Christmas Eve Service.  Large fabric angels appearing in the roof of the Church at the right moment in the play, impressed Carey, and she was even more impressed when her children were given a bag of lollies as they left the Church. She had not sung carols for a long time either. The night had been good, even if Bruce has tagged along.


Christmas Day was better than she thought it would be, she had managed to save some money and buy reasonable presents for the kids and Bruce left presents too, before he left, he also said he was sorry he left his family six months ago and would like to try to come back into their lives. Before Christmas Eve Carey would not have considered the apology, but after the Christmas Eve Service, she wondered if it was possible to forgive him. Carey realised that she was not the only one who missed him.


The year had been one of change, starting with a bad storm that destroyed the business where Bruce worked, and a boss that felt he was too old to rebuild. Bruce could not find another job in the area, so they had made the decision to sell their house, they could not afford the mortgage with only Carey's part time job. Just after they moved into the rental, Bruce left, Carey knew he had been hurting, but leaving her and the kids, she hadn't understood.


Carey heard the back door open, she knew one of her children was up, Emma was walking towards her carrying a present. When Emma reached her mum she handed her the present and said, 
'Santa didn't remember you mum, so I have a present for you.'
Carey accepted her present, wondering what her daughter could possibly be giving her.
'Come on mum open it.'

Carey apologised for being slow and opened her daughter's present. Inside were two feathers, and they were ever so special, because they were a gift from the heart. Carey suddenly realised that this was the second gift from the heart she had received, the first was at the Christmas Eve Service when the Pastor said that the birth of Jesus was about forgiveness. Carey thought if God can forgive the world and Bruce, then perhaps she could work at forgiving Bruce, because forgiveness was a gift from the heart too.

Nine Things To Do Before Christmas

This is for the November Christian Writers Blog Chain.

1.  Think about presents.  Christmas is almost 25 sleeps away and time is speeding,

the decision I have to make is do I go 

expensive 

or

something a little cheaper

2.  Make sure that there is plenty of ribbon and paper to wrap the presents, having one more present to wrap and not enough paper can fray ones nerves.

3.  Wrap the presents and hide the presents, because curious children who do not have enough to do, will go in search of the presents. If children, big and small find a wrapped present the hope is that they can resist the temptation to unwrap the presents on finding them. The waiting is important, we should remember the generations from Adam to Joseph, their hope was waiting for a promise to be fulfilled.

4.  Decorate a Christmas Tree, if you are Lutheran you can claim that Martin Luther was the first to decorate a fir tree, Luther used what was available, but now we can choose between real or artificial, 

small

or       large.

5.   The Menu. Once there was only one choice.  The custom for Australian families was

turkey,

 with vegetables.

but if you decide to pardon the turkey, or you just don't like turkey what else can you have?

Seafood,

this is so much better on a hot day and easier to cook on the barbecue eaten with

salad, is delicious.

6. Drinks, there is not much celebrating without drink, what to get, water .... soft drinks... or.... yes we have to get something nice, a good wine perhaps

 7.  Remember, I remember the years when I took two young children to visit a man in a red suit

for a photo, one was enthusiastic the other not so, at the age of four he could not see the point of having to sit on the knee of a man in funny clothes.  At age five he said no, that was that. But is that all there is to this season of festivity?   

8.  I need to take a break to recover from the list of things to do. Have a coffee and sit down for a while, admire the view and think about the question I asked in point seven.

 Yes, that reminds me of what all this preparation is about; that God's promise was fulfilled, not in elaborately decorated buildings but in a stable. The first to see the promise given were the animals in the stable, then the shepherds came; responding to an amazing message given to them by angels.

9. Light a candle,

Advent has begun, we prepare and look forward, remembering the promise that God's gift to man is with us.

Harvest

          In the Southern Hemisphere it is mid spring now, and it is time to plant pumpkin’s, squash, tomato’s, corn, lettuce, the list is endless, all depends on how large your veggie patch is, it is not the time to harvest anything

                                                      but wait

                                                        how could I

                                                          forget

                                                            that I do have

                                                              a harvest

                                                                and not just any ordinary

                                                                   but the SUPER veggie

                                                                           BROCCOLI

                                                                 You should eat your

                                                                           because

                                                                             it is

   full of antioxidant's that protect your body from coughs, sneezes, arthritis and cancer.

But wait

             

        there's more,

     it has

            FIBRE.

 

 You don't like your broccoli,

best advice,

              ever,

 hide your broccoli,

        how?

pull out the food processor,

       pop the broccoli into the machine and

           give it a whiz.

 Then add to the pizza sauce, the lasagne sauce, meat loaf, gravy,

              BE SNEAKY,

              CHOCOLATE CAKE, yeess, but not too much

                         Or

                   if you dare

                                  the coleslaw

 like the 10 commandments,

 broccoli is good for you.

God gave them both to us,

 we should be thankful.

                     But

                   Wait 

There’s more

             leave the broccoli in the garden,

                        if given plenty of water and good fertilizer,

                                          will turn from green to small yellow flowers,

 the broccoli blooming,

 is pretty,

 why don't we pick them and put them into a vase?

 Note to self; if I feed myself time with God, I should bloom too.

BUT WAIT.

    There is more,

 and maybe this is why I don't pick broccoli flowers,

         the flowers will fade,

                            and die,

                 and the plant will look ordinary

 not SUPER,

but at work within the plant is a miracle,

watch and after a while,

you will notice that where the yellow flowers were is becoming thicker,

 work is being done,

  seed is growing,

   getting ready to harvest
         for

     the new crop of

            awesomely

                                            SUPER 

                                BROCCOLI.

                                                                Don't ever think

                                                                        That

                                               GOD

                                                          is not at work

                                                               Love your broccoli

                                                                    because like

                                                                                    

                                                             GOD

                                                                  it is good for you.