Romans 8:28

 

Romans 8:28   KJV

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

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"Silent Night" (Official Music Video) | GENTRI

Gorgeous video

Memory from 2020

Yesterday, I got semi-sidetracked. Does that ever happen to you? My intention was to contact someone who was alone, who needed to know someone cared about them this Christmas. I planned to ask them about their Christmas memories, and help them remember the good times. Dean and I prepared goodie bags with apples, oranges, grapes, and granola bars and delivered them to various families in the area. We shared memories with many of them. At one home, we talked about the Fisher Price nativity set I own and how much our children enjoyed playing with the pieces when they were young. It’s not out this year, or I should say that it wasn’t out until yesterday. When I got home and looked at the empty spot where it usually sits, I had to put it out. So many memories of playing with my youngest daughter, Gina, and all of our grandchildren flooded back. One memory replayed itself over and over in my mind. Four years ago our grandson Lucas was here. We played with my set. I told Lucas a “service” stressed version of the nativity story. Lucas told me the names of the figurines, and every one of them was “Jesus” - the shepherds, the wise men, and Joseph. Even Mary and the angel were “Jesus”. The last piece was “baby Jesus”. I asked Lucas to tell me the story. He picked up the first wise man and said “serve Jesus”. Then said the same for each figurine, then finally picked up the baby in the manger again and said, “love Jesus”. He got that right! I wish I was a child and could serve through their eyes. ~~ Marilee

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No Knead Sandwich Bread

1 c + 3 T whole milk, lukewarm

2 T sugar

2 T olive oil

2 t yeast

1 t salt

3 c. white flour

Warm the milk.  Combine warm milk, salt, sugar, oil and yeast.  Mix everything together with a fork, until it forms a rough, shaggy dough.  Wet your hand with water, and continue mixing, making sure there are no dry patches of flour and dough. Cover the dough, and let it rest for 30 minutes to allow the flour to continue to hydrate. After 30 minutes stretch the dough.  Wet your hand.  Take one side of the dough, stretch and fold the dough onto the opposite side. Make quarter turn of bowl.  Do four folds. .Then take your wet hand, and push the dough under itself, creating a rounded ball. Cover the no-knead dough and set aside for 30 minutes to allow the gluten to develop and to relax so it’s ready to stretch again. Then come back and do a second series of stretch and folds. You want to do about 4 folds per session. Repeat this process another two times. So four series in total. After every series, ball up the dough, pushing the dough under itself and creating a smooth plump dough.  After the last series of stretch and folds, cover the dough and allow to rise for 1h.  Once the dough has tripled in size, shape the loaf and bake the bread.  Shape into loaf. Place in buttered loaf pan.  bake in a preheated oven at 350 F 25 minutes.  

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"The Biggest Gift of All!"

By Bob Perks

http://www.IWishYouEnough.com

 

"What happened to it?," the child asked.

 

"What happened to what?" someone replied.

 

"My gift for Mom and Dad. It was the smallest and it got lost," he sadly replied.

 

It happens that way. It seems that when it comes to gift giving we feel the need to out do each other. The bigger the box, the more money we spend, the more love expressed.

 

It's simply not true. It's all a lie and we know it.

 

"Oh, you didn't have to..."

 

Yes they did. The world demands it of us. You know you would have felt rejected, ignored and overlooked if they didn't give you something.

 

"I have to get a gift for Joe. He gave me something last year."

 

"I'm only sending cards to people who sent them to me."

 

How sad. Gift giving has become a matching game. Or worst yet, a competition.

 

So it was on this Christmas morning.

 

"I can't believe all of the presents!" someone said.

 

"This is even more than last year!" the oldest child confirmed.

 

"I guess Santa out did himself this year," Dad said.

 

"You must have been really good!" said Mom.

 

"Wait before you open them, let's get a picture of it all. We can compare it to last year's gifts," said Dad.

 

Then the reds and greens of fancy Christmas paper flew across the room. The bows and ribbons were crushed among the efforts to make get to the gifts.

 

The youngest child was lost at times in the rush to find his own Santa's treasures but managed to survive somehow.

 

"Don't forget the gifts we got for each other!" one child yelled.

 

The youngest child stopped what he was doing. He wanted to watch his parents when they  opened his special gift.

 

But it was no where to be found.

 

"What happened to it?," the child asked.

 

"What happened to what?" someone replied.

 

"My gift for Mom and Dad. It was the smallest and it got lost," he sadly replied.

 

The others were too busy to help him find it. They already began clearing away the paper and he feared they had tossed it in the garbage.

"You need to get bigger gifts. You don't lose big gifts," his older sister said laughing. "But it was the biggest gift of all," the child replied.

 

He sat down in frustration and began to cry.  "Is this it?" his brother asked as he held the little box in his hand. "I almost stepped on it."

 

"That's the biggest gift of all?" the sister said mockingly. "What a joke!"

 

"It is! It is!" he shouted back. "You'll see!"

 

Then, grabbing it from his brother's hand he straightened out the bow and handed it to Mom.

 

"Daddy, come here. This is for you, too," he said while sniffling away his tears.

 

Everyone stopped what they were doing to see what he had given. Perhaps just out of curiosity, maybe just to laugh.

 

Carefully Mom unwrapped the gift and opened the box.

 

"Oh, my!" she said as she slowly sat down on the  couch.

 

"What? What is it?" someone said.

 

Then Dad sat down next to her to share the special moment.

 

"Oh, I see." he said. Looking at his wife he humbly said, "It is indeed the biggest gift."

 

Then Mom reached in, pulled out the gift and placed it on her hand.

 

It was the Christ Child in the cradle.

 

Dad glanced over to look at their manger now buried beneath the all too many gifts.

 

"Clear away those things," he asked of his oldest child.

 

The dimly lit star attached to the manger shown  down on the spot where the Christ Child would normally be.

 

"But he took it from..." his sister began to say  until Mom interrupted her.

 

"He took it from the story of Christmas. The real reason we should be celebrating," she said.

 

The small child was standing next to the tree. The white lights sparkled off the warm streams of tears that ran down his face. Quietly he explained..."Every year we think about how to give the biggest gift. I thought that this year I would give the best gift anyone could ever give. The pastor at Bible school asked us to think about the greatest gift of all. Then I thought about Jesus and knew that I could not ever out give God. So my gift to you and Dad was the Biggest gift of all...ever!"

 

Suddenly it was silent. Mom glanced around the room and humbly said, "I am ashamed. We had forgotten the meaning of it all."

 

Then motioning to her son she said, "Come here. You were right. The Littlest One was indeed the Biggest Gift of all!"

"I wish you enough!"

Bob

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