my family

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Different Rules Apply

There are different rules around our house when I’m on my own … to be accurate, it was my son and I who were on our own this weekend. Lily was away speaking at a women’s retreat.

Before she left, she gave us some rules to live by while she was gone. But even as she shared her expectations with us, I knew that when the door shut, a whole different set of rules would kick in.

wings and pizza

I listened to her directions and got some tips, like for meals she wanted us to eat the leftovers in the fridge and not spend money on food. However, I made it clear to Mike that the leftovers were for lunches and evening meals would be pizza and wings. … not together, mind you … pizza one night and then wings for the hockey game Saturday night.

I’m sure that as Lily tells us what we should eat, by now she realizes what will really happen. I think it is her eternal, optimistic, pie-in-the-sky hope that maybe we will actually follow her rules that forces her to tell us.

Along with the eating rules, the cleanliness rules go out the window as well. She knows better than to expect us to keep up to her standards. She only expects that when she returns the place will look like it did when she left. Whatever happens between then, she tries very hard not to think about.

Lily has this rule that is etched into her brain that she can’t leave the house or go to bed unless the dishes are all washed and the kitchen is clean. Mike and I don’t share the same etching in our melons! To go a day or two with a sink full of dishes is not a problem. I figure that’s why we bought a set of twelve dishes and not four.

My rule is if you leave it in the sink, put some hot water on it so that when you finally get to washing, the gunk will come off easily. It’s a good rule to follow and over the years it’s saved me a lot of time in the kitchen.

When the kids were little, keeping the place clean was more difficult. There were toys strewn all over that needed to be picked up. But now, it’s a cinch – we don’t make that much of a mess! There’s just a few clothes, crumbs, and clutter that needs to be cleaned and straightened before Lily shows up at the door.

And I know that just before she enters the house she starts imagining what it might look like. She hopes for cleanliness but braces herself for substandard neat and tidy. I know how her mind works. She played a tape in her head of what the house looked like during the weekend just to prepare herself for what she would find.

In the end, disappointment or satisfaction reigns in her, depending on whether she believes we made an effort or not.

Here’s the thing: God’s standard is perfection – something you and I can’t reach. But God has arranged it so we just have to be ready to meet Him when we die or Christ returns. God’s disappointment or satisfaction with us will be based on whether our faith is placed in Christ. And He will be able to tell if it is or not, depending on if we are seeking to please Christ or are not making any effort. Let’s all be ready.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How do you prepare for an inspection?  Leave your comment below.

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Made It Through Valentine’s Day!

Special occasions should lift our spirits high with great anticipation. Instead, they often bury us under heaps of pressure. I think if you’re a guy, you can understand this feeling more than a woman can.

We recently got through Valentine’s Day (I’m speaking for all guys here). I’m not saying it was a hardship or unpleasant in any way. As a matter of fact, the day turned out pretty well. Lily and I had a nice meal out at a restaurant where many other couples were dressed in a variety of shades of red. I would have been decked out with them, but I couldn’t find my raspberry coloured beret.

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The “getting through” part is the pressure we find ourselves in trying to prepare for the wonderful event. My first tip was a closed door about two weeks before Valentine’s Day.

I was instructed not to come in. I couldn’t fathom why at the beginning of February my wife needed to hide something from me – my birthday is not until June! She said she was making a Valentine’s package to send our daughter, and immediately I felt my right eye twitch.

I quickly checked my calendar to make sure the day was free and that I didn’t have a meeting or something scheduled for that evening. Whew! I didn’t; I calmed down, my eye stopped twitching and I kind of forgot about Valentine’s Day for a couple of weeks.

It’s times like these that I wish I was more of a shopper. You see, if I was, I would have noticed the Valentine’s displays. I would have been reminded by the advertisements in the flyers. But sadly, we got down to a day before Valentine’s Day and I felt the pressure of the world on my shoulders.

I not only had to do something for my wife for Valentine’s, I had to compete against a woman who had been planning what she was doing for at least two weeks! She had a huge head start on me.

With my heart rate slightly elevated, and my palms just a little damp, I got to the store and started looking at the cards. With so many cards, you’d think it would have been easy to find the perfect one.

The cards I found seemed way too mushy or just stated the obvious (Happy Valentine’s Day). I was frustrated; there were some empty card slots and I just knew that one of those cards would probably have been perfect … why did I leave it until the day before?

I finally settled on a card … the chocolates would be easier. I just had to stay away from hazelnuts and I would be able to pick a winner. With my loot in hand, all I needed now was to write something warm and tender. But I don’t do warm and tender when my heart is racing and my hands are sweaty. I’d have to write it later.

I had booked the restaurant earlier in the day so I had a whole day to calm myself, dig out from the mounds of pressure and breath. Wow! We made it through another special occasion guys – way to go!

Here’s the thing: Each week, many of us are unprepared for a special occasion. We don’t think about church and meeting God until we get up in the morning and are in a hurry to get there. Take some pressure off by preparing your heart in advance to meet with God at church.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How do you prepare for meeting God at church?  Leave your comment below.

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If Only I Had Noticed

Some people are more observant than others, so it isn’t right that everyone should have to meet the same standards.  It’s fine for an observant person to notice that his wife had her hair cut, but there should be a grace period and hints given to the person who is not as observant.

I’m all for equality in certain circumstances.  We all should observe our surroundings and know where others are and what they’re doing, so we don’t bump into them.  But having to notice something without a comparison is completely unfair to an observant-impaired person.

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It’s like playing that concentration game where you pick up a card and then have to remember where the matching card is on the board.  An observant person wins at that game and we commend them.  We don’t get upset at the one who loses; we just feel sorry for the poor sap.

I had been away for a couple of days on a trip and when I got home, my wife Lily looked just as lovely as she did when I left.  It wasn’t until the next morning, after she had fixed her hair for the day, that she said to me, “You didn’t notice that I had my hair cut.”

In a split second, I recalled how bad a concentration player I was.  I had flashbacks of me turning up the wrong cards.  It’s not fair.  It wasn’t like Lily got a new hair style – it was the exact same hair style only a little shorter!

I told her that I thought her hair looked great, but it didn’t seem to make much difference because I hadn’t noticed on my own.  Maybe I need to get a deck of concentration cards and practice … or, maybe there’s an app for that.

When kids are little, we try to get them to distinguish between things that are different. On Sesame Street, kids learn “one of these things is not like the other…”  But in this case, Lily’s hair looked the same.

Now, Lily is a teacher at heart.  So I think she wanted to help me out, give me another try.  Well, at least I think that’s what she was trying to do when she said “come and look in the pantry and tell me if you notice anything different there.”

The problem was, she didn’t give me any more clues than that!  When I go to the pantry there are only two shelves I look at – they’re the ones that have the snack food on them that I would be interested in eating.

Suddenly, I was looking at items on shelves I didn’t know we had in the pantry!  “It could be anything”, I thought.  So I just said, “Wow!  This looks fantastic.  You’ve done a lovely job.”  Somehow she saw right through that, and gave me another failing grade.

I think non-observants should be marked on the curve.  We should be held to a lower standard.  But, in reality it’s not going to happen, so I just better try to be more observant.

Here’s the thing: I might not notice when God wants to show me something, and I could  use the excuse, “I’m not that observant.”  But, I’m the one who misses out.  What I need to do is pay more attention to God so I notice what He wants me to see.

That’s life!

Paul

Question: How do you keep yourself observant to what God wants to show you? Leave your comment below.

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Housekeeping is Not that Hard

I’m starting to become a pretty good housekeeper, if I do say so myself.  And by the way, that is saying something!  I’ve never been known for my generous and extensive work around the house.

Becoming a proficient home engineer has kind of snuck up on me.  You see, we’ve had company at our home rather frequently of late, and most of that company has had to do with me.  As a result, my wife Lily has put a little pressure on me to be a nearly equal participant in getting ready to host our guests.

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I’ve been in charge of the downstairs (I’m not sure if she doesn’t trust me to clean the upstairs yet, but that’s just fine with me!).  There is no shame in being a downstairs cleaning aficionado, as I like to call myself. Well, it’s actually the first time I’ve called myself that.

Tidying up the downstairs has its benefits.  It’s where the TV is, so as I clean, I can watch the game on the tube (I mean, flat screen).  You really don’t have to miss anything.  The vacuum cleaner is a little loud, but that’s what we have the volume control on the remote for.

And when you vacuum frequently, it doesn’t take long to know the high traffic areas you have to focus on and those areas you don’t really have to go over (because no one is going to notice that it didn’t get a fresh zoom over from our 15 year old Kenmore canister model).

Speaking of vacuums, I’ve been telling Lily that we needed a Dyson vacuum cleaner since they first came out (that Dyson guy really seems to know what he’s talking about). I had no real reason for wanting one, because I never used the machine.  But now that I’m in charge of the downstairs environmental aesthetics (at least when company’s coming), it’s time I put a little more pressure on.

The other night we had company, and as usual, I was at my station ready to do my part.  Actually, I was watching TV on the couch, and thinking about the exercising I should be doing.  The instructions were sent to me over the loud speaker from upstairs (that’d be Lily speaking loudly to me).

She wanted me to clean first and exercise later.  She has this thing about be prepared in advance for company and not just putting the vacuum away when the door bell rings. I obliged and got my duties done and then hopped on the treadmill to begin my aerobics.

Funny thing, while I was on the treadmill, I’m sure I saw Lily look in the bathroom, and around the basement.  There’s no way she was checking to see if I had done my cleaning to some standard or something.  Then I saw her with a damp cloth rubbing it over surfaces and objects in the room.  I’m not sure what that’s for, but I’m glad its not part of being a downstairs cleaning machine.

Here’s the thing:  There’s more to a role than just a title.  If we say we belong to Christ, the proof is in what we do.  If I have trusted my life to God then my actions will be the evidence that I am following Him.  It’s a good reminder for me to keep checking my actions and not rest on my titles.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question:  How are your actions measuring up to your title?  You can leave a comment below.

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I’ve Found the Secret

Sometimes it’s the little things that make a big difference. The other day, my son and I went to our local golf store to try out his new golf clubs. Mike got new irons for Christmas, but we needed to make sure they had the right shafts for his swing.

The store we went to has a golf simulator that analyses your swing as you hit balls into a screen. As Mike started to warm up and hit some balls, I noticed that he wasn’t getting the distance I would get with the same club.

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The store employee mentioned that he was leaving all his weight on his right leg and what he needed to do was transfer his weight over to his left leg when he swung. I thought that was pretty common knowledge, but for Mike it was a revelation.

He started making that little change and his distance improved by about 25-30 yards, just like that. He was pretty psyched about the increased distance. I figured I would take a few shots to see if the new clubs would make any difference to my game. Sadly, they didn’t – even worse, Mike’s shots were now going a good 20 yards farther than mine!

Something as small as a shift in your weight can make so much difference to the distance you hit the ball and how you feel about your game. For a young guy, it’s all about the distance: the farther you hit, the better you feel about yourself.

Mike came home from the store and showed a friend his new clubs, he was so proud of them. He can’t wait until the spring to get a chance to use them. I think deep down he believes he will be able to beat me now. But I’m not that worried; he still can’t putt.

It’s really remarkable how little things, like shifting your weight, can make you feel good.  We often view the big things as mood changers. Things like winning a lottery, getting a big promotion, or making a significant move are what bring us big smiles.

But life is made up of little moments and not big events. Life is all about the little things, like savouring that steak that has been cooked to perfection, seeing the joy on your son’s face after he hits a golf ball, or anticipating the start of hockey on Saturday nights (finally).

We don’t live life from big event to big event. We live most of our life in the little moments that happen each day. It’s those little moments that make the real difference. It’s the little moments that sustain us every day until a big event comes along.

The last few weeks, I’ve been kind of frustrated. I think I’ve been trying to live from big event to big event and have gone through some deep valleys along the way. But if I would feed on those little moments I have each day, I would sail through even the longest gaps between big events.

Here’s the thing: The same is true with God. If we are waiting for God to do something big in our lives, we may get discouraged and frustrated in the mean time. Instead, if we are having little moments with God each day, they will take us through any valley we find ourselves in.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: What are the little moments in your life (day) that can bring a smile to your face? Leave a comment below.

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Another Eight Long Months!

A week ago, I drove up to Ottawa with my wife, Lily and daughter, Karlie. We were taking Karlie to the airport to catch her flight back to Calgary. She had been visiting us over Christmas.

We made several trips this last month. There were three trips to Ottawa and a trip to Toronto, all to visit family. Each trip had one leg that was difficult because of the road conditions. The hardest trip, though, was this last one, knowing we were saying good-bye to Karlie for another six to eight months.

Kar & Me

It’s not like we are new to this. Karlie has been in Calgary and other places out west for over 5 years now. It’s just that it doesn’t seem to get any easier to see her go.

There is a special element she brings to our home and family when she’s back – something that’s hard to explain.

It’s the looks we share when I tease her mom and we both anticipate the reaction that will be forthcoming. Some of those times are so predicable, but maybe that’s what makes them so funny.  Like when Lily says to me, “You’re looking a little pale. Are you feeling all right?”, my usual response is to sigh, drop my shoulders, and answer her in a weakened voice. Karlie can tell it’s an act, and we share that look. Lily, well, her reaction of concern moves into high gear! We smile every time.

There are the things Karlie does for me too, like the Christmas cookies she bakes. There was one batch she made just for me. They were my mom’s recipe, and she made them as good as Mom ever did. She also watched a few chic flicks with her mom, and even though that wasn’t directly for me, believe me, it was for my benefit!

We shared our father daughter breakfast (our tradition) and even though our restaurant was closed, we were able to find a new breakfast spot that served the same kind of unhealthy food with comparable quality.

There is a comfort to having her at home, like everything is back to normal, but with a twist. The kids, well, they’re adults now.  It used to be like the Flintstones in our house: lots of humour but half of it over the kids’ heads. Now they are right in on it all.

We’re able to relate on a different level now, like having adult conversations about plans and dreams and next steps. I found myself sharing plans with Karlie, too. She even hung out with her parents on New Year’s Eve, in downtown Kingston! I can’t remember a more exciting New Year’s Eve … well, maybe a couple or twenty, but Karlie made it a little more fun.

It’s not that our home doesn’t function when she’s not there.  It’s just that Karlie adds something special to our family, the little things that make everything so much better.  … On a good note, when Karlie came she brought a truck load of snow, and since she’s left, it’s melting rapidly.

Here’s the thing: Just like my daughter brings a special element to our home when she is present, we all bring something to our church community when we show up. What we bring will be missed if we’re not involved. No matter who we are, or what gifts we think we have or don’t have, God has placed us in our community to add to the flavour for everyone.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: What do you bring to your community? Leave your comment below.

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Tattoos and Hand Grenades

Last night we had company for dinner.  My job was to get the house ready, which consisted of a little vacuuming and bathroom inspection.  I wish it had been just bathroom inspection, but I had to do some cleaning as well.

While I was doing the vacuuming, I noticed some marks on the kitchen floor.  I thought they were crumbs but the vacuum cleaner wouldn’t suck them up.  When I looked at them a little closer, I figured out what those marks were.

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It all goes back to Christmas morning . . . Each Christmas, Lily asks me to find something to go in the kids’ stockings (she doesn’t have the gift of buying creative stocking stuffers).  I don’t really look for items that are perfect for each individual; I generally look for items that will get a reaction of some kind.

This year, I found two items that I thought would spark some excitement and create a buzz around the tree Christmas morning.  The first item was tattoos.  Now these aren’t the kind of tattoos you lick and press on to you skin – these were way bigger!  They were sleeves of tattoos and I gave everyone a pack.

I liked them so much I wore mine all day long.  I was going to wear it to bed that night, but I thought that might be too much.  It was something like a skin coloured stocking material that had tattoo designs all over it.  It was awesome!  I looked like I played in the NBA or belonged in “the hood”.  Believe me, I looked real cool!

The other item raised some eyebrows and relates back to the marks on the kitchen floor.  What I put in everyone’s stockings this year were hand grenades.  You heard me right, and I got them from the dollar store, no less!  Next time you are thinking of firearms, head right to Dollarama – they have a good supply.

I didn’t really read the package, though.  I knew they exploded somehow and that was good enough for me.  We all needed to be armed Christmas morning.  When everyone opened their stockings, they got a chuckle.  Mike was the first to decide to try them out.  He opened his pack, squeezed a grenade a few times, and threw it towards his mother.

Within seconds, it exploded.  There were shrieks, not so much from the noise (though it had a good explosion sound to it) but from the shrapnel that was left on the floor (liquid and white marks) that got the reaction.  We were suddenly scrambling out to get towels to save the living room rug and hardwood floor.

Who would have known that the hand grenade was loaded with vinegar and baking soda?  Well, maybe someone who read the package, but I certainly hadn’t so it was a surprise to me.  We decided that the living room should be off limits to grenades, so a couple more got tossed in the kitchen … hence the shrapnel marks that didn’t seem to come off the kitchen floor … or the walls.

Apparently, Lily cleaned the floor several times and still there is shrapnel from the war on Christmas morning littering the countryside (I mean, the kitchen).  It was like the Middle East – bombs going off right there in front of the manger scene!  I hope she forgets this one by next Christmas.

Here’s the thing: Reading what’s on a package can really help you make good decisions.  It can also keep you from making poor decisions.  We have God’s Word that can do the same for real life.  Let me suggest that this year we all set a goal to read through the Bible, or at least to regularly read passages of it.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: How do you keep from making poor decisions? Leave your comment below.

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Missed Opportunities

I don’t get too excited about puzzle building. I’m just not very good at it. That’s why on Christmas morning, when an anonymous gift of a puzzle showed up under the tree, addressed to our family, I was not all that excited.

My wife, Lily, on the other hand, loves to build puzzles. She’s an expert puzzle builder. Naturally, I suspected her to be behind this family present.

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The puzzle was the 4D kind. (Before you screw up your face and think I got my numbers wrong, the 4th dimension in this puzzle is time.) We didn’t have to put on crazy glasses while fitting the pieces together … although, that may have made it more fun.

This present was my wife’s scheming attempt to get the whole family to do something together, rather than have some of us glued to the TV, watching sports over the holidays.

I’m sure she thought, “I know Paul will like this because it’s a puzzle of the city of Toronto where he grew up.” And she worked that angle for a while by handing me pieces with street names on them and saying “I don’t know where this street is. Maybe you can find where it goes, Paul”.

She knew Karlie would be up for doing something together as a family – after all, she came all the way from Calgary to be with us for Christmas. But Mike, our son, was the wild card.

I can’t figure out how she thought building a puzzle would be something he would want to do. Maybe she thought three out of four wasn’t bad, and we might be able to cajole him into participating.

It reminded me of when we would make gingerbread houses at Christmas. Each of us would make his own house and then we’d arrange them in a village setting. Mike never wanted to do it, but we pressured him into it each year. He would try to build a monstrosity of a mansion, only to get discourage because he didn’t understand the concept of having supports to handle the span of the roof. He was always the first to give up.

It was no surprise that as soon as he saw the puzzle he said, “No, I’m not building it.” I had similar sentiments but I didn’t want to burst Lil’s bubble so soon after opening the present.

I helped at first, but quickly faded … maybe it was the turkey dinner, or maybe I just needed a nap after all the sitting I had done in the past few days. When I woke from my slumber, Karlie and Lil had quite a bit accomplished.

A few days later, when it was suggested by you-know-who that we finish building the puzzle, Karlie was quick to take up the challenge. Mike was nowhere to be found, and I, well, I had something else I needed to do … I think … in another room.

The next morning, I came downstairs to find the completed puzzle. It looked just like a real view of the city. It was then that it dawned on me how I missed out on building it with my family. It could have been a time of talking and laughing, sharing time together.

Here is the thing: Even though I don’t like building puzzles, I should have sucked it up and participated, not to miss the opportunity. This year there will be many opportunities at work, in relationships, with God. I don’t want to miss those opportunities this year.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: How do you plan to make the most of opportunities this year?

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The New Christmas Reality

I wrote this Christmas morning when I got up and read it to my family before we started opening stockings and gifts.  Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

There is a new reality in our house on Christmas Day.  The “no one was stirring, not even a mouse” has stretched from night time to well into the morning at our place.  The only problem with that is my internal clock is set for the same time 365 days of the year and I can’t just turn it off.

I get up each day at 6 am to spend some time with God.  On Christmas morning, because I’d been up so late the night before, I did sleep in a little.  I got up at 7:30, and let me tell you, only the turtle was stirring!  He actually seemed excited about Christmas … or maybe he was just hungry.  Anyway, it’s a far cry from years ago when the house was buzzing before 6 am.

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I remember those days: the calls from another room, “Can we open our stockings now?”; those extra bodies crawling into our bed, trying to get some leverage to push me out; or the lifting of my eyelids and asking, “Are you awake, Daddy?”

There is one good thing about the new reality.  Santa doesn’t have to get to our place in the middle of the night.  He can show up in the morning and get all the stockings squared away, guaranteed not to wake anyone up!

And forget the milk and cookies.  He has a full breakfast and makes it himself!  Not even the noise of the pots and pans shook the Christmas slumber from the children all snuggled in their beds.

The stillness is nice; it’s calming and thought-provoking … Speaking of thoughts, it’s too bad the World Junior Hockey tourney didn’t start this morning – that might have gotten some action in our house, at least from the other male in our residence.

On Christmas Eve, I vaguely heard some negotiations about when things would start Christmas morning.  I heard the time “11 am”, but I think there was some push back on that proposal, so I didn’t know when our house would come alive with the sound of stockings being emptied and wrapping paper being ripped.

We rip wrapping paper now.  Back when I was a kid, apparently there was a shortage of paper because my mom made us take the paper off presents carefully so we could save it for another year.  I’m sure glad we discovered all those trees in Northern Ontario so we can just rip the paper off and throw it right into the garbage (I mean the recycling bin … can you recycle wrapping paper?)

This new reality is sure different than in the past.  I’m not sure I like it.  I’m not sure it’s all that productive.  There are some good portions of the day we’re missing out on!  Then again, getting an early start was more important in the days we had toys to deal with.  I needed time to test some of them out to see if they worked properly.

Here’s the thing: As we get older we lose some of the excitement we once had for Christmas.  It doesn’t have the same magical charm it once had.  Rather than starting out with a great flourish of activity, now it starts more like every other day of the week. There is nothing wrong with that but, if that same attitude affects our excitement and wonder of Christ’s birth we nullify the purpose of the day.  To keep the excitement, the wonder in Christmas, insert your favourite Bible translation of Luke 2:1-20 here.

Until Next Year!

Pastor Paul

Question: How do you keep the wonder and awe of Christ’s birth in Christmas Day?

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The Longest Night Ever

Note: There will be no blog on Tuesday I’m going to take a break for Christmas.  So, today I want to share with you one of my favourite Christmas memories growing up.  I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and may God bless you in 2013.

Like most kids growing up, Christmas was a pretty exciting time for my brother and I.  John is just two years younger than me and we would fuel each other’s excitement.

We were notorious for getting up very early Christmas morning. We would often sneak out of our room, only to hear a voice from another bedroom boom, “GET BACK TO BED!”  That would send us backtracking really fast.

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One year, neither of us could sleep all night. It was literally agony lying in bed, thinking about the presents that might be under the tree, and not being able to open them. John and I shared a bedroom, which only made it harder to sleep as we kept talking about what we might be getting that year.

To make matters worse, we didn’t have a clock in our room. After a while, we couldn’t handle the waiting, so we decided to go on recognizance missions to find out what time it was. That meant we had to sneak through the hall undetected, creep through the living room with the Christmas tree glistening in the moonlight, past the stockings on the couch, through to the dining room, to the clock on the wall.

I went first, and to my great disappointment, I discovered it was only 1:30 am – oh, it was going to be a long night! On my way back, I couldn’t help but notice the stockings full to the brim, with a three-pack of underwear sticking out the top (Santa always brought underwear). Accidentally brushing the underwear with my hand, I notice something else sticking out the top of our handmade, wouldn’t fit anyone sized, Christmas stockings.

I snuck back to our room, hardly able to contain myself with excitement, and whispered at barely lower than an yell, “WE GOT ARMY MEN!”  (Hey, that’s a big deal when you’re 5 and 7.)

It took a while for us to recover from that mission behind enemy lines, but after what seemed like an eternity, it was John’s turn to check the time. He did a masterful job of getting out of our room undetected. When he got back, he shared some more news of what was in our stockings and told me the time was 10 after 4. We were closing in on 7 am when our parents said we could get up.

After another long time, it was my turn to go back. I used all my sleuthing skills to be quiet and went straight for the clock. I was shocked; I had to look at it a second time. It was only 3 am!  I turned and headed back to our room.

John had a problem with hands on the clock and he had mixed them up when checking the time. Instead of being 10 after 4, it was really 20 after 2 when he had gone. I had no option … he needed a beating for that mistake.

We had trundle beds in our room, which meant John’s bed slid under my bed in the day, and at night pulled out beside mine. This was to my advantage. Not only was I two years older and maybe an inch taller, but my bed being above his, gave me an extra foot of leverage. I took my pillow and beat him silly with it. He looked like a drunken sailor wobbling back and forth, until he collapsed on his bed in a heap.

At that point, I thought that night would never end. I thought we would never get to opening up our presents. But we did … and my brother John is still alive.

Here’s the thing: I wonder what kind of night it was in heaven as all the angels waited, anticipating the birth of Christ. We know they couldn’t contain themselves when the baby was born. They joined the angel who announced the birth to the shepherds and sang, “Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth, peace to those on whom his favour rests.”  We should be that excited about Christ our Saviour!

Merry Christmas,

Pastor Paul

Question: What excites you most about Christmas?  Leave your comment below.