Is It Safe To Come Out Yet?

After the busy Christmas week we may feel a bit like this pup.  If you are feeling like me there were too many miles on slick roads and too many, "I'll have just a bite of that."  My mind, like my body, is a bit weary and yet still strangely hungry for something more.  I am reminded of Bono's  lyrics, "And I still haven't found what I'm looking for."

Maybe Christmas always keeps us guessing and the mystery is like our life in Christ.  We never seem to get the total fullness even as we embrace the mystery, we are found still yearning for just a bit more.  And so as I peek out from under my tree, I can proclaim it was a good Christmas, even with the remaining mystery.

I started off Sunday morning at the Des Moines Korean congregation for a meeting.  They were eating and it smelled wonderful.  Rev, Gunsoo Jung and the others invited me to have something to eat (hospitality is their thing and it comes naturally, perhaps it always does.)  We drank tea and visited about the needs of the church while the families were finishing.  The kids were outside sliding in the snow,  just like a Norman Rockwell painting.

Cheryl and I finished  Sunday at the Ankeny First "Eve Eve" Service held at the downtown campus.  We had a great time as Rev. Martha Ward always does a nice job leading a service and music was excellent with Jan Boehm, Lindsay Drake, and Melody Web and family. Rev Bob's preaching was thoughtful as we considered the reality of Jesus' birth.  The highlight personally for us was Tim, Molly, and little Maggs as the holy family.  At one point, Molly had been kneeling for over 7 minutes and just got up when the time came.  I am pretty sure I would have had to crawl to the alter and get a good grip without knocking over all the lit candles, or drop and roll to the stairs to get up after being down for that long.  We got to watch Ellie and CC and my mom, who came with us.  They all did very good and grandpa didn't have to yell at any of them during the service.

On Christmas eve day, our two sons and families and my mom with nine grandchildren gathered at the house.  It was glorious most of the time.  The twins and Maggs were doing their collective baby thing.  The older kids had lots of fun.  It was a good day.  After a huddle, we all decided to have home church and not take all the babies out in the weather.  So we sang hymns with the guitar, we lifted up concerns and thanksgivings around the circle.  Grandma read the birth story from Luke and I interpreted.  We prayed and sang Silent Night using the flashlights which came in the stockings earlier in the day.  The boys both commented  no offering was a nice touch.  The service lasted over 45 minutes.  After church we all read the A Christmas Carol together from a great popup book Wendy gave us last year.

After the kids headed for home, Cheryl and I went out to Granger, Emmanuel for their Ten PM Candlelight service.  The church is in the midst of a pastoral change and they needed an Elder to preside over the Communion.  Lay Pastor Donna Fultman presided and the traditional service of Carols and Lessons was fun and easy.  Donna's husband played his Little Martin guitar along with Barb Chambers on the piano to lead us.

We headed home into the cold winter night just before midnight, noting the lack of traffic on I-80.  After a week of no power for a full day and the remaining pieces of the storm in tow, It was good to know and sing the words, "All is calm and all is bright."