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The Disciples Peter and John Running to the Sepulcher on the Morning of the Resurrection by Eugene Burnand, 1898, A. D.
He is Risen!
I didn’t see my grandmother that Christmas. I didn’t want to see her. My life was in chaos. I was in trouble everywhere I looked. My longtime boyfriend and I were fighting. Were we breaking up? The money I had worked for and saved to live on while I attended graduate school had done a vanishing act. Could I work part-time and still student teach? And what about teaching? I had always loved school, but being a good student and being a good teacher were, I was discovering, not the same. Was I cut out to handle the crowd control? The paper work? What if I wasn’t? There were too many questions that I kept pushing away. Too many answers that lived someplace else.
Grandma wouldn’t have pried, but she read me like her sheet music. No twenty-four-year old bravado would have fooled her. She would have seen that something was very wrong with me. She would have caught it in my walk, the tilt of my head, my voice and my eyes. And when she did, I feared that I would crumple with shame. At least, that was what my pride told me. So when my family visited her and my grandfather at Christmas, I arranged to be elsewhere.
She had a gift for me though. My mother brought it by my apartment a week later. Taking the soft, gaily-wrapped bundle in my hands, I felt guilty. For a few seconds. Then like a little kid I dug in. Pulling at the red ribbon, tearing back the white tissue, I hardly breathed as I imagined what delightful thing I would find. And there … and there … was a pair of flannel pajamas.
True, they were pink and had lace around the collar, but they were still pajamas. I turned them over, opened them up, hoping–expecting–that she had tucked in a locket or a small book of poems or something equally special. But no, there were only the pajamas. I was stunned.
“Is something wrong?” my mother asked. “Are they the wrong size?”
Numbly I checked the label. The size was correct. I looked at my mother and forced a smile. “They’re fine,” I said, but my mind couldn’t comprehend it. Pajamas from a woman who in my childhood had made me hand-sewn doll clothes? Costumes, they had been really–opulent, magnificent costumes of taffetas and chiffons and trimmed with tiny sequins, bits of lace and fake fur. And now pajamas? Only last Christmas she had given me cross-stitched potholders and pillowcases for my hope chest. But this year she gave me store-bought pajamas! Wasn’t that the kind of sensible gift someone gave a child that she didn’t know very well?
I tried to shrug it off. I told myself my grandmother was getting old, that she didn’t have the energy to make me a special present. I told myself that maybe her budget this year was tight, that she didn’t have the money. I didn’t whisper that maybe she didn’t love me as much, was probably angry with me because I hadn’t spent much time with her lately. I didn’t put all that into words. I didn’t have to. The feelings cut like razors. For a moment, I considered tossing the pajamas, but then reasoned that a graduate student, especially a nearly penniless one, couldn’t afford to be so cavalier. I dropped the pajamas on top of my foot locker and forgot about them.
I didn’t notice the pajamas again for weeks–not until that night in early February. It was about seven in the evening and I was going out. As I reached for the light switch on the bedroom wall, I glanced back. Suddenly I saw them, pink and cuddly, poking out from beneath a pile of sweaters and books. I have to write Grandma, I thought. I have to thank her. After all, she bought them for me and it’s rude not to thank her. Tomorrow. I will do it tomorrow, I promised.
But tomorrow didn’t come. That afternoon my grandmother had had a stroke and lay dying in a nearby hospital. I was grief-stricken when I heard of her death later that evening. When I noticed the pajamas, I buried them at the bottom of a drawer. They stayed there for months.
In the years that followed I sometimes pondered Grandma’s gift of the pajamas. When I became a Christian, I lay my confusion and hurt in God’s loving hands. I accepted God’s forgiveness for not visiting her and for not thanking her for her gift. God wanted me to and she would have wanted me to. I let God heal my wounded feelings, realizing that I had jumped to stupid conclusions. She had loved me. It was my neediness that had made me doubt it. But still I sometimes wondered about her last gift. The pajamas still seemed like such an odd choice, out of character for her.
The season changed yesterday. I felt it in the morning when I threw back the covers. The sun was bright and the sky, blue jay blue, but the air had a bite to it. I shivered into my bathrobe. Winter was coming on. I needed this year’s long underwear. I thought about ordering online and then dismissed it. The Mall seemed a better idea.
In the department store I threaded my way through racks of hanging lingerie and passed a table piled high with pajamas. I stopped and turning back, I took in the colors–pastel prints and bold plaids. I fingered the soft, warm flannel and thought of my daughter. She was at college not more than 40 minutes away, but she was 40 minutes away and winter was coming on. I thought of how I longed to keep her warm and safe. Then I remembered her life with all its questions and conflicts. Oh, how I wanted to wrap my arms around her, letting her know that I loved her, believed in her and wanted all that was best for her. My breath caught. Just … just as my ….
“Oh, God,” I whispered, tears filling my eyes. “I understand Grandma’s gift. I see now what she was giving me. Thank you.” The tears slid down my cheeks. I didn’t brush them away. Instead, full of love, I chose a pair of pajamas for my daughter. And then in honor of my grandmother’s love, I chose a sweet pink pair for me.
It’s getting exciting. I love all the activity leading up to Christmas—shopping for gifts, playing Christmas music, hanging a wreath on the front door, decorating the tree, and going to Christmas programs. It’s fun, it’s meaningful, but it can get intense. I can lose sight of what all this celebrating is for. More precisely, I can lose sight of who I am celebrating. What about you? What about your kids? I think it is important, maybe even essential, to have some quiet moments during this busy season.
Using an advent devotional is one way—a good one. We can suggest some good devotionals. Moments with God help us remember and relax and rejoice that we are the gifted ones. God has given us His Son, a Savior, and because of that we now live A.D, Anno Domini, in the year of the Lord. (I love to remember I live in 2023, in the year of the Lord’s favor. Check out Luke 4:18-19 and see if you don’t agree.)
An activity that we’ve enjoyed at our house is to make a paper chain out of strips of Christmas wrapping paper. (The chain is not for the tree.) Make a link for every day until Christmas. Before you put the links together put a name or a group—your pastor, family members, members of a Christmas program—on each link. Hang your chain up. Each night take down a link and pray for the name on that link. We do it when we light the candles of advent and have a devotion. In our family we have seen wonderful answers to the prayers we have prayed.
At one point in our family life, I made a new advent wreath from greens and wire and modeling clay every year. Then one year I saw and bought five brass candlesticks shaped like angels. I thought at the time I was being extravagant, but I was wrong. We’ve used them ever since. I used to shine them up, but one year I got an allergic reaction to the polish so now I leave them as is. I tell myself they are battle-scarred, though, they are by no means battle weary.
Nancy Ellen Hird is a mom, a writer and a credentialed teacher. (She taught seventh grade and preschool.) Her latest works for children are I Get a Clue and We All Get a Clue, mystery novels for girls 10-13. For several years she was a freelance reviewer of children’s and teen’s literature for the Focus on the Family website.
“Praise the Lord.
Praise, O servants of the Lord,
praise the name of the Lord.
Let the name of the Lord be praised,
both now and forevermore.
From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets
the name of the Lord is to be praised.” Psalm 113: 1-3 (NIV)
Enjoy For the Beauty of the Earth by John Rutter, sung by Gracias Choir
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qIqF4PDxPY
Let us give thanks to the Lord, for we are loved and greatly blessed.
Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!
“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever.” Psalm 136:1 (NIV)
” . . . give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NIV)
Wednesday coming is November 1 and we in the States are beginning to think about Thanksgiving which we will celebrate on Thursday, November 23, 2023. This Wednesday I’ll be putting the vase (see the picture), the slips of paper, and the pen on my kitchen table.
A couple of years ago I was inspired to create a special November activity (you can read about it below) and it has blessed us to much that I want to share it with you. Maybe you and your family or you alone will want to do it too. The container doesn’t have to be clear and the papers don’t have to be colorful, though it does make it fun as you see it filling up with papers.
From my post November 2021: A sweet board book I reviewed a while ago, The Blessings Jar, has inspired me to create a great activity for this Thanksgiving season. I’ve made a “Thank you, God . . .” jar. (It’s actually, as you can see, a vase.) I’ve put small pieces of paper next to it with a pen. Each day until Thanksgiving my husband and I will be writing on the papers things that happened that day that we are grateful to God for. We will then fold the paper (or papers) and put it (them) in the vase. On Thanksgiving we plan to empty our vase and read the papers. I think it is going to be lovely and meaningful.
Fast forward to 2022: That activity was an experiment for me. Doing it blessed me in so many ways. Every day I saw more than one thing to thank God for. It is true what it says in Psalm 23: “Surely goodness and mercy follow me/us all the days of my/our lives.” That is not to tell you that there were not some sad moments or even angry ones. (Oh, yes, there were!) But in watching for and recording God’s grace even on those days, I found more peace, more strength, more joy than I thought possible. And it was beyond amazing and delight for my husband and me to take the papers out on Thanksgiving and take turns reading them. How great is our God!
Nancy Ellen Hird is a mom, a writer and a credentialed teacher. (She taught seventh grade and preschool.) Her latest works for children are I Get a Clue and We All Get a Clue, mystery novels for girls 10-13. For several years she was a freelance reviewer of children’s and teen’s literature for the Focus on the Family website.
From Dr. David Jeremiah’s online devotion for Friday, April 7, 2023:
“I read of a man wandering through an art gallery in Glasgow, Scotland. He saw a boy gazing intently at a painting. It was a depiction of the crucifixion of Christ.
After watching him a moment, the man went over and asked, ‘Young fellow, what is that picture about?’ The boy said, ‘Why, sir, don’t you know? It’s our Lord dying on the cross. He’s bearing our sins.’
The man smiled and nodded, then continued his stroll through the gallery looking at other paintings. Suddenly he felt a tug at his sleeve. It was the boy. ‘Pardon me, sir. I have forgotten one thing. He is not dead anymore. He’s alive!'”
Jesus promised on the night before he went to the cross, “If you really love me, you will keep the commandments I have given you and I shall ask the Father to give you Someone else to stand by you, to be with you always. I mean the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, for it can neither see nor recognise that Spirit. But you recognise him, for he is with you now and will be in your hearts. I am not going to leave you alone in the world—I am coming to you. In a very little while, the world will see me no more but you will see me, because I am really alive and you will be alive too. When that day comes, you will realise that I am in my Father, that you are in me, and I am in you.” John 14. (The New Testament in Modern English, J.B. Phillips)
Jesus kept his promise and He is keeping His promise still. Happy Easter!!!!
A thousand apologies to our readers who got this morning’s blog post via email. Emailed posts don’t show the task bar. I forgot that. Again a thousand apologies.
If you read a post on the web, Book Lists appears on the task bar above the post. (They say a picture is worth a thousand words so I thought . . . )
A dear reader who gets a post via email just called me and said about this morning’s post, “I’m confused. What Book Lists?” Thank you, thank you dear reader.
Here is how this morning’s post should have read: I moved the Christmas books to the top of Book Lists. https://nancyellenhird.wordpress.com/book-lists/ I thought it would make it easier for you to find the books with a Christmas theme that we have have reviewed. Scroll down then on Book Lists to find middle grade fiction and non-fiction titles, YA fiction and non-fiction, picture books, etc.
I’m so glad God is running the world and not me.
Nancy
I moved the Christmas books to the top of Book Lists. I thought it would make it easier for you to find the books with a Christmas theme that we have have reviewed. Scroll down then on Book Lists to find middle grade fiction and non-fiction titles, YA fiction and non-fiction, picture books, etc. I hope Book Lists helps you if you are looking to give a book as a gift. And you just might be. Christian books and books with a Christian world view make wonderful gifts. Their themes can bless a reader long after the story ends.
I have some other news. Ann Cavera, a former a middle school reading teacher, has a heart for middle school children. This month she is going to be featuring middle school books and their authors on her podcast, Speeding Past 80. Tomorrow, Tuesday, December 6, I—or so I was told— am going to be one of the authors she talks about. I listened to two of her earlier podcasts and she is looking into some interesting books. Why not have a listen? https://ccavera.podbean.com/
Nancy Ellen Hird is a mom, a writer and a credentialed teacher. (She taught seventh grade and preschool.) Her latest works for children are I Get a Clue and We All Get a Clue, mystery novels for girls 10-13. For several years she was a freelance reviewer of children’s and teen’s literature for the Focus on the Family website.
Many of us watch a nativity play at Christmas, but few of us actually get to be part of one. Our jobs, our family responsibilities, our health restrictions, keep us from it. So we watch. And don’t get me wrong. It is a good, good thing to be an audience member. Still, when it comes to a nativity play, sometimes . . . sometimes, we yearn to be in the scene. It was during one of those seasons for me that I wrote and produced A Shoestring Nativity. I’m putting it up now on the chance that one of you also has such a longing, but you don’t know how to get started.
A Shoestring Nativity : It’s up on my author website. This activity was originally written for publication with a personal experience story at the front end. I’ve included the story because it shows a little of how the groups can be organized for the preparation time and then how the “performance” can be managed by the director.
The producer/director will need to gather the materials, tools, song sheets, and do some drawing and some cutting ahead of time. The preparation time of the “players” is minimal.
“Players” will need only a few minutes to complete the construction of their costumes and/or props, put the costume pieces on and practice their song (or songs). This creating of the costumes and/or props and practicing the songs is valuable for the whole experience and is part of the fun of doing the “play.” Readers will only need a few minutes to read over the Bible passages that they will read aloud during the “performance.”
The materials suggested (construction paper, wrapping paper, gold ribbon, brown wrapping paper, baker’s twine, macramé cotton rope) can be found on Amazon. An old sheet cut into the appropriate size will work for head pieces for Joseph and the shepherds. A long oblong scarf or shawl will work for Mary. If you do buy rolls of wrapping paper, you might think of using the cardboard tubes that the paper comes wrapped around. Give them a bend and voila you have shepherds’ staffs. The producer will also need texts of the songs–several copies of each song. Texts are online.
I’ve done this “play” with a home Bible study group of 12—adults and children. I’ve also done it with a women’s Bible study group of nearly 40 women. In terms of the number of participants it can have, A Shoestring Nativity is flexible. We have also done this activity as an after dinner program with mentally and physically challenged adults.
In the year, 2020, my husband and I did this pageant on Zoom with family members and friends near and far away. As the producer/director, I sent my costume suggestions and instructions, and the words to the various songs ahead of time to the participants.
I think I can say that each group that I have done this activity with has enjoyed doing it immensely.
A side note: In the Zoom production my husband and I were the Wisemen. Problem–there were only two of us. I would have said if anyone asked, “The third Wiseman is behind us out of view.” My husband wouldn’t have that–the song is We Three Kings of Orient Are– and he disappeared into our workroom. Ten minutes later he reappeared with a king. Not exactly a reasonable facsimile, but clever–it worked. It has a handle on the back and he held the third king up so that everyone could see him.
The DIY nativity pageant will help you and your family or you and your friends tell each other the Christmas story. It’s fun and for some it can even be very meaningful.
I’m telling you about this now because there is some preparation required. Mostly you have to decide on a date and time when you can do it and then invite friends and family to join you. (They will need to put it on their calendars. Making time for it in our busy, busy world is perhaps the hardest part, but it’s so worth it.) If you are doing this activity in person, as the host /hostess you will want to gather ahead of time the materials needed for the costumes and props. But don’t stress, remember the materials are easily available.
Nancy Ellen Hird is a mom, a writer and a credentialed teacher. (She taught seventh grade and preschool.) Her latest works for children are I Get a Clue and We All Get a Clue, mystery novels for girls 10-13. For several years she was a freelance reviewer of children’s and teen’s literature for the Focus on the Family website.
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