Merry Christmas

Christmas has taken on a new meaning for me in the past few years.

For the first time in my life, I understand the true meaning of Christmas.  For the first time, my excitement of what is in that wrapped gift under the tree has been replaced with Thankfulness for the ultimate gift of Grace.

The Greatest Gift of All……..

Merry Christmas from the Etheridge home to yours…….May you hold in your hands, the most PERFECT and IMPORTANT gift of all……..all year long.

Love,

Chuck & Liz

GROWING SEEDS: "Guard Your Heart"

"Guard your heart above all else,

for it determines the course of your life."

Proverbs 4:23

There's a story I heard this past week that you NEED to hear.  We all NEED to hear…..truly HEAR this story.  A story told by Max Lucado.

It was about a young girl named Taylor Storch who, with her family, had headed to Colorado for a little skiing.  This 13 year old laughed all the way up and down the mountain until one sudden moment, she fell - crashed - down a straight rocky slant of the mountain.  By nightfall, she was gone from this earth and Home with her Father….and her parents, Tara and Todd, were signing papers giving away Taylor's still-warm heart.

Max said they ended up giving Taylor's heart to a 38-year old woman in Arizona whose heart was failing so much that she couldn't get off the couch anymore - Patricia Winters was her name.  

Taylor's mama had only one request.  She called Patricia Winters and asked her if she could come "hear" her heart.  So Taylor's mama flew from Dallas to Phoenix and knocked on Patricia Winters' door and Patricia Winters walked right past the very couch she had been confined to for so long, opened the door…..and her arms…..to Taylor's mama.  Taylor's heart beating right there next to her crying Mama's.

And then Patricia Winters reached over and handed Taylor's mama a stethoscope.  And there it was; clear as a bell; 

Thrum…Thrum….Thrum.  

Taylor's mama could hear it loud and long, right there in her ears…..her daughter's still-beating heart.

And then Max had asked slow and quiet. “What was Taylor’s Mama really hearing?”

“It indwells in a different body, but that heart is the heart of her girl…. ” Max said.  “And when God hears your heart, that’s what He hears — the still-beating heart of His Son.”

As we start a fresh new year, I pray I never forget that the heart that beats in my chest cavity…..that gives me life….that breaks when someone wrongs me….that speeds up when I'm excited and slows down when I sleep….is none other than Jesus' heart inside of me.  

I pray I never forget that.

P.S.  Two days after I wrote this article for the bulletin, the recipient of Taylor's heart passed away.  This heart that had lived so fully in both Taylor and in Patricia Winters', suddenly stopped beating.  What a strong reminder that we are just a heartbeat away from eternity.

GROWING SEEDS: "I Fear It"

Have you ever gone through a Christmas alone?  I mean….REALLY alone?  Like "No-Family-No-Friends-No-Anyone" to share this time of year with?  

I-FEAR-IT   

I fear that one day, it will be ME that has no one to purchase Christmas gifts for…..ME that has no where to go on Christmas Day……ME that has no family to visit or call.  

A few years ago, it suddenly dawned on me one day that I'm the youngest in my family…..I'm 13 years younger than my husband…..I have no children….and I'm going to be that lady in the nursing home sitting at the front door begging people to talk to her about her colonoscopy cause she is all alone.  I cried for 3 days.  And on the fourth day, I purchased a Long-Term Care Insurance Policy.  I could barely breathe from the reality of it all.

Sometimes reality really BITES, you know???

But guess what……it's not all about ME or YOU.  I've learned since that pity-party-Liz-day many years ago that you will never be alone if you simply become the friend you wish others to be towards you.  There are so many lonely people out there; especially this time of year.  Look around….they're sitting next to you in church…..they're passing you in the grocery store…..they are your neighbor.  The key is to put your "its-not-all-about-me-and-my-family-&-friends" glasses on and see….truly SEE…and become a part of their life.  If you can do that, you will never be alone.  You will never want for more friends and you will have more friends than your heart will hold.  But you have to LOOK.  Discouraged people generally don't carry a sign saying "I'm bummed".  

So, this Christmas, whether you are sporting those stylish new eyes in search of discouraged souls or you ARE the discouraged soul, I encourage you to find each other.  Invite someone who is alone to come over for Christmas dinner and join your family for the day or if you are alone and disheartened, I urge you to call a Stephen Minister here at the church.  Either way; the Spirit of Christmas will light up your life in ways you never expected!

"Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others."

Philippians 2:4

GROWING SEEDS: "JOY"

 JOY

Welcome to the 3rd Week of Advent….the JOY week.

I must admit, I started this week off with anything BUT Joy.  It's funny how you can be rocking along, enJOYing the lights on the Christmas tree and everything that goes with this sparkling, holy season when WHAMM……your enJOYment gets zapped right out of your hands.  Something happens…..something is said…..something knocks you right off that JOYful high you were flying high on.  

And that's what happened to me; I lost my JOY for a brief moment this week.  I lost sight of the JOY that I had a Messiah that saw I couldn't fix myself and all the messy baggage that comes with me.  He saw that I needed help….He saw that I needed HIM.   So He decided to drop down to my level….and with 10 fingers, 10 toes, 2 ears, 2 eyes and a big heart, He left His comfortable throne and moved into my world.  He became flesh in my messed up, chaotic, angry world.

And isn't it funny how He puts the answer right under our noses when we need it most?  As my unJOYful self was reading the "Return To The Heart of Christmas" daily devotional that Pastor Jack handed out a few weeks ago, I discovered the answer: "Life is in the Preparation, not just the Destination."  We are so busy getting to our destination that we miss the preparation along the way…..you know, that messy "growth" part in the middle of our journey.

We say "Merry Christmas" so easily…….but is it REALLY that merry (Mary) when we are struggling through the crooked paths and rough places of life?  Those times when someone hurts you with their action or words….when you feel alone or betrayed?  

Without these messy growth parts; the "preparation" for our destination, would we fully understand what JOY is?   

GROWING SEEDS: "We Are Waiting"

What Am I Waiting For?

As Advent grew closer and closer this year, I found myself quietly questioning what "Advent" really meant.  I'm embarrassed to tell you that if someone had held a gun to my head and forced me to give a Websters definition of what Advent meant, I probably would have been shot.  I grew up an ADVENTist (Seventh day Adventist)…..how is it possible I didn't know the definition of Advent? 

But as I read and studied up on exactly what Advent is and why we celebrate it, I quickly understood its purpose.  Much like the anticipation I felt when my niece Jacque was a month away from being born and I could hardly contain my excitement as I attended Lamaze classes with my very pregnant and "bigger-than-a-house" sister, Advent is the preparing of our hearts and minds for the arrival of Christ.

Advent brings our minds out of the Christmas craziness of Wal-Mart and back to the sereneness of the manger.  It reminds us "why" we celebrate Christmas.  And its meaning is in the……waiting.  

YES.  The W.A.I.T.I.N.G, just as Mary and Joseph waited for the birth of their Son, the Messiah, we are waiting for His final return.  What we fail to recognize this time of year, amidst the chaos, the Santa Lists and the credit card charges, is that we are right smack in the middle of God's great story.  And chapter 1 of the story didn't start when Jesus was born……it started with Adam and Eve……and the end of the story is still being written.  You and me….we are actual participants in this story….the same story that Mary, Joseph, the Wise Men, the Shepherds and the Angels were…..only they were in earlier chapters of the same story.

Behind all the noise and chaos of this time of year is a story being unfolded……

      right before our eyes…..

     and we are living the story.

I'm Thankful for Thanksgiving…...

I'm Thankful for 

Thanksgiving!

Words cannot describe the blessing this Thanksgiving was for me…..so I think I'll just let the lens of my camera tell the story of my Thanksgiving….

FROM waking up to a most magnificent Thanksgiving sunrise on a cold, foggy lake…..

TO a Thanksgiving meal prepared mostly by men and a hodgepodge of orphan Thanksgivingers bringing their favorite scripture to the table with them……

TO a Thanksgiving birthday celebration…..

TO a Wii Bowling competition to work off the turkey and pumpkin pie in our bellies……

TO a morning of meeting new tiny friends ….

hugging old friends…..

and making new grown-up friends…...

TO singing "What Does The Fox Say" in the middle of a country road at the top of our lungs with my girlfriend…..

TO witnessing the last of Fall's final color…...

TO "faux" ice skating on OIL in downtown Mt. Vernon with my crazy niece and girlfriends…..

TO celebrating my 106 year old friends' Birthday as she moves into #107 with her family that are an extension of my own family…..

TO closing out a Thanksgiving weekend with a Liz-prepared grilled cheese sandwich and soup Thanksgiving meal with the family (thanks Matt, for having my back!)…...

And thank YOU for letting me share a titch of the blessings in my life.  God has been so incredibly good to me…..and has graced my life with you…..my Murphy's Mom Blog friends who so faithfully read my words, view my pictures and allow me the freedom to express myself so openly and honestly.  Thank you for letting me vent, whine, cry and occasionally exaggerate to you……and you never complain…

Well…..hardly ever.

"In our daily lives, we must see that it 

is not happiness that makes us

grateful, but the gratefulness that

makes us happy."

~ Albert Clarke

The Fall of Our Lives…..

 Fall is my favorite time of the year…..it's when the aged leaves, after living a full, complete life…are tired….they're wrinkled….and it's time for them to let go….let go of the stem that has held them safely in place through the storms of their life.

I love Fall.  And I love my 106 year old friend, Jewell……who will be 107 on Tuesday.  I met Jewell when she was at the ripe young age of 99……

She was on my Meals on Wheels route and this spunky young lady met me each time with a smile as bright as the sun.  She never let me leave without telling me she loved me….and as Jewell feels the crispness of the Fall of her life getting closer, she still has that twinkle in her eye; still never lets me leave without telling me she loves me…..she l.o.v.e.s. me.

I hope she knows I love her too….