Reflection....

My wife used to tell me that she thought I was the most handsomest guy on the planet and she'd follow that up with "But you don't realize that, do you?" Amongst alot of things I have been taught, discerned, and have been blapped on the head with over the years is that.....I am operating on someone else's ticket.....

At least, that was what I told myself, excusing myself from the responsibility of pursuing God as He has pursued me throughout the years. I oft make the remark that my life has been unlike the footprints in the sand poem and more like.....two footprints side by side and then a big hole where I have fallen. The other set of footprints stop and then you can see the evidence that I've gotten back up and the two sets continue.......Pretty much, God would let me fall, get back up, and we'd move on.....there never seemed to be a set of one footprints where I was carried.

But God spoke words of encouragement and lent a helping hand when I would try to struggle back to my feet.....He was always there, never leaving me.

Through times of sleeping under aquaducts and begging for food.....to times of struggling to pay the rent and keep food on the table, I have been blessed. Not by some gifting of everything I needed but by the gifting of needing everything I have had.

That hug from a daughter who knows how to tug the heart, to the son who wants to emulate his father.....From the gift daughter who shows care for her new siblings to a wife who struggles and is learning to struggle well.....I have been blessed.

From friends who have stood in the gap with prayer to wise counsel from wisen Elders who have walked the path before me........From men who are willing to tell me who's I am to the Father showing me who's I am.....I have been blessed.

There are moments throughout the day, when blessings are flowing and I don't see them, so distant or so seemingly insignificant they seem......but they're there. And they've brought me this far.

Christmas to me isn't so much a celebration of Christ's birth but a time for reflection of what started on the day we celebrate in December......a path of a journey that brought the world redemption.....and a man, who was God, who was willing to follow that path to His own death.....

I am thankful for this time, that I can see in the imagery of history and the reflection of the Word, a starting point to a journey beyond our comprehension....from birth to death, and on to life.........

And I am thankful for the blessings of being able to see that starting point in my own life.......from birth to death to be reborn in spiritual life, a source of my Father's joy and love....

I only pray to serve Him as well as He served us.......