Welcome to the Journey

It was snowy and icy that day in a little town in northern Indiana. It was about this time of day when a little baby girl was born into this world. She was tiny, just over 6 pounds but she carried within that tiny body a story to be lived, a journey to be traveled, and a legacy to leave.

Now 63 years later as I look back on that journey there are so many blessings to count. There are memories of 44 years of marriage, 5 living children with their spouses, and 16 grandchildren. Recent music concerts and videos of children's plays remind me of the many gifts my children have and the role music has played in many of their lives. There are friends spread across the USA and into some foreign countries. I am blessed.

I have traveled to places I only dreamed as a young girl that I might see sometime in life, such as standing beneath the Eiffel Tower earlier this year in Paris, Monet's Gardens and seeing the Kukenhoff in Amsterdam in the spring with the tulips blooming, finishing off with a trip to Alaska late in the year.

I have touched the lives of some with the redemption story God has written through me. I have seen hope restored, marriages redeemed, harmful habits turned to hopeful and healthy choices and lives turned back to God. I have walked a restoration journey with others that continues to show God's plan and purpose for the life of that little girl born many years ago.

This day brings to close another year on earth and the closing of another year of my life. What will 2011 bring? Where will the journey take me this year? What will the valleys be and how high will the mountain tops be? What will the new memories be? Will I travel well with faith and hope? Will I journey with confidence that God has His plan in place? Will I be a willing traveler on the journey in the midst of disappointments and unmet longings?

My 2011 resolution is to be just that - a willing traveler believing that joy will outlast any disappointments or sadness. Welcome 2011 - a new year with a new journal waiting to record the many experiences and memories.

Do you have your 2011 journal and pen ready to record God's travel journey for you? May you travel well with hope and faith covered with joy in 2011.

What is really behind the photo?

Pictures say a thousand words but do they always speak the depths of truth and reality?

The photo on the left symbolizes the star that came to rest over the place where Jesus was born. Many thoughts come to me as I see the star and remember the many stories of that glorious night.

Pastor Brian at our church has been focusing this Christmas season on picture perfect -- or is it really?

We see so many photos depicting the birth of Jesus and see many scenes of that miraculous time such as the photo above. Was that birth place really as warm and cozy? Was it all as it's shown in the photos?

I just finished watching "The Nativity" which shows a reality much more likely for Joseph and especially Mary as this miracle unfolds from beginning to the actual birth and days following. Mary was young, frightened and subjected to ridicule from her family, friends and villagers. Marriage may well not have been her hoped for plan at that time in her life, let alone carrying a child as a virgin - a child conceived in a way never before or after in all of eternity. Who would believe her - who would walk this wild time with her - and could she commit herself to carry this story God was asking of her? A lot of difficult questions - questions I would find difficult in my lifetime.

I know the smallest bit of Mary's story. I was a young girl about to be married. I was ill-prepared for the future of joining together with another human being, to become one, and to journey together these some 45 years that have transpired since back then. I came to my marriage two months pregnant, though that was not a divine conception. I knew the ridicule of family and friends as my secret became obvious. I was frightened of many things coming quickly into my life. I wish I could say that I lived that portion of my life journey with the hope and faith Mary had.

This time of year we send and receive family photos. Everyone is dressed to coordinate and make the photo appealing. Often, professional photos are taken just for the occasion. Everyone smiles and seems happy, but is this the reality? What happened in the hour prior to the photo shoot? What's really in the hearts of those in the photo? With the state of things today, many photos show a plastic non-reality. Truth in some photos would tell of lost jobs, precarious financial situations, health issues, struggling marriages, and unrest in the hearts.

As I see people individually in my office for Life Care with Embraced by Hope I hear stories of serious struggle during this season. Things aren't as they appear, life isn't that photo of happiness and hope. Life is precarious and difficult for some.

The birth of Jesus in less than perfect conditions is really a good photo for us - a road map. Life wasn't perfect, the birth didn't happen where and when it was most hoped for, hard things weren't taken away to make life smoother for Mary and Joseph. In fact it seems an already difficult situation was made more difficult with events leading up to the birth.

I have birthed 7 babies. Each time was in the safe and clean sitting of a hospital surrounded by nurses, physicians and all the needed equipment to provide for safe delivery and health of my child. And yet I was concerned for what was to come. Mary didn't have any of that. It was enough that she was about to give birth to a baby under the best of circumstances during that time. Now she would give birth alone with her fiance to help her, a dirty animal trough to lay this child in and the swaddling clothes we see were likely the shawl that had covered her for the 4 or 5 day travel to Bethlehem. It would have been filthy at best. No sanitary conditions there.

And yet, God was there to guide and protect. The picture wasn't perfect, but God was. The situation was less than hopeful, but Hope was born that night in the midst of uncertainty and chaos.

The pictures we send out may not be perfect, or truly depict our lives all the time, but with God, our story is as He has planned it. I wonder if the photographs of my life are all in God's Book for me? The photos of my life aren't all picture-perfect, but they are God-perfect. God is writing a story and I'm walking the journey He has chosen for me and walking the journey with others.

By the way, that child born to me 45 years ago was our first-born son. And God chose to have the son born Christmas Day. It was a comfort to me, a sign from God, one of many times that I would sense that God was making my less than perfect life God-perfect. And to bring the number of our family to a close our seventh child, another son, was also born on Christmas Day! God in His unique way put His special mark on the beginning and ending of children born to us.

What's behind the photos of this holiday season for you? Are they picture perfect - likely not since we all live in a fallen world. But most importantly, can you rest in faith and hope, knowing that they are God-perfect?