This morning I need to decide on what lesson we will be having on Sunday. The Sunday before Christmas is on judgement and Ezekiel's wife dying. Merry Christmas! What were these Lifeway people thinking? They were not thinking of tidings of comfort and joy, Comfort and Joy, oh tidings. The Christmas lesson is the Sunday after Christmas and most larger churches opt out of Sunday School when it is so close to Christmas and people traveling or recuperating the day afterwards.
Yesterday morning, got to church a little early to take down the fall leaves on our bulletin board and hang some frosted snowflakes. No artistic touch on it just the change of seasons. Our lesson was in Ezekiel 11 and the process of studying the lesson was quite different than usual. We looked at the false leaders of Jerusalem and their denial of any punishment or war because they had the temple in their city. They were profiting at the expense of the people and leading them astray. God's presence had left, but they told people, kind of mocking Jeremiah, go build homes...cause that is a peaceful time activity. The picture they painted for those in Jerusalem, the city was the cauldron and the people inside were the meat...the picture being of safety. Of course being meat in a pot doesn't give me those warm cozy feelings and one commentator said, the meaning of this example, metaphor or simile definitions of these escape me now, is lost to us. God tells Ezekiel use their words and turn the meaning upside down to prophesize what is really going to happen. Ezekiel is concerned that God is forgetting His people and God lets him know, He has a remnant and He will bless them, they won't follow after idols and they will worship God. And here it is, God will be a little sanctuary for them. Well, once I read that, I was all into this lesson. The fact that a BIG, HOLY God would become a little sanctuary for us. Last week while making a quick trip to Ingles after parking the car, I looked across the way toward the bank next door. Behind the bank was the most beautiful, still holding onto golden leaves, tree. That small moment was sanctuary. God's presence and handiwork in creation. I went back to Ingles a few days later and all the leaves had fallen to the ground. That special moment of little sanctuary had been noticed and enjoyed. I am glad I didn't miss it. I got passed on the River Road the other day in the 35 mph area. That little silver car was going so fast. When there are just a few more weary days and then, my speeding ticket will be off my record, I am not flying down the road. Got a blessing in the speed limit travel, I saw a young deer cross the road. Now that was special.
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I heard Merry Christmas Darling twice yesterday, in the car and in the grocery store. The Holiday Traditions channel plays a lot of Baby It's Cold Outside and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. You can hear those songs by various artists each hour. Sometimes it is too much.
Today is Roy's last Tuesday in the office. His bosses took him out for lunch yesterday. They wanted to take him out for dinner but Roy is so strict on what he eats and he doesn't drink, so he was very happy to just do lunch. He has said for the longest time, no one at the office ever asked him what he did before coming to EPD. Yesterday, they asked him how he got started in derivatives and he told them he taught himself about it. When he was first hired there, he had been hired in the IT department, then all the mess with Plains Energy happened, and they moved him even before being officially employed there. They also brought up his work on getting them not so tied up with Enron and that paid off in not losing as much as they could have. Roy started there twenty two years ago on December 13th. His last day is tomorrow. His spin bike arrived yesterday, the appreciation gift he chose. That thing is heavy and I finally got it from the top of the driveway into the garage. He is getting things checked off the list and will be eager to leave after the movers pack our stuff up.
To think that we both have lived in Houston a long time. My father was transferred to Houston when I was four. So it has been a long time there and Roy was transferred to Houston when Pennzoil left Shreveport. Pennzoil will always hold a special place in our hearts. And Friday, Roy starts toward our home here. It seems strange to now really be leaving Houston with just occasional trips back. Over the years we tried so many times to leave the area but it never worked out. Of course now, I am glad it didn't work out. Love Colorado but love the Blue Ridge more. We will have to be patient for spring because Roy will be taking pictures. Many times when he was here for only a week or ten days, photography got pushed aside for the necessary. Last night when we were talking I said, well, we will have to get this done before you leave...silence...then I said, oh yeah, you're not going back to Houston after the holidays. Yahoo!
In these weeks leading up tomorrow I have certainly experienced God's little sanctuaries. Here and there, refuge. Encouragement and wisdom for decisions we are making. This time last year we had no idea what this year would hold, lots of changes, lots of moving. We were celebrating making it through the rough pandemic year. We didn't know that this year would be so much more.
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