Thanksgiving is a favorite!

I love holidays! I love everything about them. I love the foods, the decorations, the smells associated with them. I especially love Thanksgiving. Fall is one of my favorite times of year. I really love beautiful fall-colored trees. My children get so weary of me saying "Oh look at that tree! Isn't that beautiful!" Their answers usually range from the "yes mom, that was the same tree on the way that you said that about" or just making fun of me in general. I am also a purist when it comes to holidays. I firmly believe that you don't decorate for the next one until the current one is over. I would NEVER even think of putting up a Christmas tree before Thanksgiving! I love my pumpkins and scarecrows and oranges and reds and golds way too much to skip over them. I think the thing I like best about Thanksgiving is that it is what it is. It has not been commercialized because how can you really do that to "thankfulness" anyway. It is just there or it is not. I know those who are just thankful people all of the time. It is just part of their personality. However, I find that I need a specific day to cause me to really reflect on all of the blessings that I have been given. So...even though this was posted a couple of days after Thanksgiving, I pray that each of you pause to reflect on those amazing and wonderful blessings that it is so easy to overlook and ignore.

Camel Rides and Sycamore Trees

I recently returned from an AMAZING trip to the Holy Land. The entire time I was there I was constantly in awe of where I was and what I was seeing. Words constantly fail me when I try to describe the impact this trip had on me emotionally and spiritually. I am glad that I remembered to close my mouth when someone was taking pictures because most of the time it was wide open in delight and I had that "oh my" expression in my very big eyes. I honestly felt like a little kid again - laughing and crying and asking a million questions and literally jumping up and down over what I was doing or about to get to do! I would not be entirely honest if I did not say that I probably embarrassed my husband and several others on the tour on many occasions. The funny thing is that most of the time I am rarely like that. I am an emotional person but my actions tend to be very responsible and very "low risk". (Just ask my children - I have been known to squelch their fun because I deemed the "fun" too risky.) But there are occasions when something comes over me and all of that goes right out of the window. Disney World did that to me to an extent because I did not get to go until I was in my late 30's. This trip however was like Disney on major steroids!

Thus the attached pictures and title. I threw caution to the wind and got to experience some really cool things that normally I would never do. For example, I went on a camel ride. I have seen camels in the zoo, on TV, and in the movie Aladdin. Just for the record, they don't look that tall on TV! However, when we stopped at a Bedouin camp and they offered camel rides I did not even hesitate. As a matter of fact, when I stepped off of the bus, a little boy wrapped a turban around my head and literally pulled me to the camel. The funny thing about this is that I have a real issue over wearing "head things" that other people have worn or even sharing a hair brush. I also have a fear of heights and large animals. So before I could blink, I was properly "turbaned" and saddled on a camel. I found myself laughing hysterically - a mixture of awe and fear has that effect on me. I also get really loud too! Pictures were taken and eventually the knees stopped knocking and the heartbeat returned to normal - but what a great adventure it was.

One of the other things I did that you see pictured was climb a sycamore tree. This was the second day of our tour and we were on our way to a museum to see the "Jesus Boat". Our guide said, "Look there is a sycamore tree just like Zacchaeus climbed up in to see Jesus". The next thing I knew, myself and two other middle-age women were up in a tree. Others on the tour were laughing hysterically and taking pictures like crazy! Just for the record, I have not climbed a tree in about 35 - 40 years! I just knew that I had sung the song about Zacchaeus being a "wee little man and a wee little man was he" for as long as I could remember. and if he thought it was a good idea to get a better view - I thought it was worth at least investigating for myself!

That was only a couple of the many adventures that I got to experience. There are many more that I will share in days to come but the point of this story is that I felt incredibly "alive" during this trip. So much so that my children were beginning to wonder if some foreign creature had invaded their mother's body. As long as they have known me they have never seen my on a camel and certainly not in a tree! However, I must admit it was so very freeing to feel so "child-like". And...don't you just love that about children - you can read that sense of wonder all over them when they see or hear or experience something truly amazing. I think this is a picture of that "abundant life" idea that Jesus spoke about. I know that everyday is not filled with "camel rides" but I am learning that each day can hold "awe" if I let it. Sometimes I just am so busy that I don't notice the "awe" moment. It can be found even in the midst of hardship and heartbreak. The unexpected and amazing can occur when you least expect it. The good news is that when it does, it really is ok to act like a kid now and then. So...go ahead - jump, or laugh, or get excited, or cry if you need to. Not only is it ok but usually much needed! Just as we celebrate and enjoy our children and what delights them - so does our Heavenly Father.

Quieted Like a Baby

The other day I had a series of trying events and frustrating situations - all on the heels of each other. You know those days - you have had it and you can't take it any more. I was grumpy and the only other possible emotion was to be even grumpier. To make matters worse it was only 8:00 a.m. I know that I can't be the only person in the world who has day(s) like this. So whoever is reading this surely can relate. Finally, after trying several thing to make me feel better or to "see the bright side" I decided to try reading God's Word. I flipped my Bible open and this is where it just "happened" to fall open. Zephaniah 3:17 "The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with his love, He will rejoice over you with singing."

Immediately this incredible peace and quiet came over me. The feeling was unexplainable - nothing had changed. Yet, something was definitely different. I can only describe my feelings by relating it to a baby who is just "out of sorts". Nothing in particular is wrong and yet they are restless and unsettled and fretful. When our children were small and they were like this I would pick them up, hold them gently to me, rock and perhaps sing. I could feel when they just relaxed and then suddenly things were right with them again.

God was being my Heavenly Father at that moment. I was his child and I was the one who was "out of sorts". He "quieted" me with His love from His Word. It was a precious gift to a very fretful child. The funny thing is that I can't really remember ever reading out of Zephaniah but that passage was marked by a highlighter. So...He must have used that passage before and just like my children responded each time to the same things that calmed them - I did the same.