To Dress Alike

Opinions vary—some people don’t like the idea of dressing alike. I was going through some old photo albums and found some pictures that proved where I got the dress-alike syndrome. My mother liked to dress me and my sisters alike!

The following picture is very valuable to me. My mother worked hard on those dresses. They have a very special art around the waist-line that was sown by hand. I remember her particularly mentioning those dresses. We lived in southern Chile at the time. My parents and sisters were going to the capital city Santiago for Easter vacation. I was staying out in the country-side with an Indian family. Those dresses were too precious to take with us. They stayed at the house, as did my brand new school uniform. That was the end of that story because just days later our house went up in flames! I remember how embarrassing it was to go back to school in one of my oldest dresses, which was okay to have as a play dress, but not for school. It took some time before my parents could get me a new uniform!

Kerstin, Agneta, and Ingrid dressed alike

If you have followed my blogs theses last few months you have figured out that I have two daughters: one in Heaven and one in Oklahoma. I loved to dress them alike! When we were in Sweden on furlough they followed along to the services we held. They used to sing together and the oldest, Eva-Marie, liked to preach. The following picture is of one such occasion. “Now I am a pretend preacher,” she said. “But when I grow up I’m going to be a real preacher!” Due to her cystic fibrosis she never was able to fulfill that dream; neither did she get to marry an American “luxury” preacher, like she talked about when she was a kid.

My preacher girl Eva-Marie and her sister Carina

Here are some pictures of my girls in their look-alike dresses.

I have to show-off these light blue dresses. I used to sow most of their clothes, and these dresses I was especially proud off. They were some big dresses that had come in a “missionary barrel” and someone gave them to me. I transformed them to “new” Christmas dresses. Nowadays it’s not even worth taking the time to sow. When the stores put their dresses on sale they usually cost less then what the material to make them would cost! So, I don’t sow for my grandkids, but I knit, and they usually get one new sweater each for winter. Last years I wasn’t able to knit that much but I have added on to the length of their sweaters and that way they are good for another year!

The made-over Christmas dresses

Maybe their prettiest dresses were those they wore as flower girls in Chicago when my brother got married. That was some experience for my girls raised in the mountains of Peru. How exciting!

Proud flower girls in Chicago

Another very exiting experience for us was when a church in Chicago offered to give us some support for our missionary ministry. Here we are all three girls visiting at that church. I wonder what my husband thought of his three dress-alike girls! He’s not here anymore so I’ll just have to wonder.

Bengt Lundquist with his "girls"

What about you? What do you think about the subject? I know someone that definitely doesn’t like it, but my lips are sealed. That will remain a secret. More than fifty years after my mother made the beautiful dresses for her girls (that I only have in black and white), this crazy grandmother bought dresses for her treasured jewels so they could dress alike for Easter (of course, with approval from their mother).

My most precious jewels in Easter attire

Will the tradition be passed on to the next generation? It will take some time before we know that, but in the meantime, I’ll stand firm on my dress-alike concept. It’s biblical!

Some companies and schools have uniforms. For quite a few years in Peru, all school children had to dress alike: white shirt and gray pants or skirt, and a gray sweater or a red poncho.

The biblical dress code is this: “Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus” (Rom 13:14). That way, wherever we go, people will recognize who we are; that we belong to the same family.

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (Col 3:12).

“All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another”
(1 Peter 5:5).

This is my contribution on the subject. What’s your opinion?

Our “Too Much” God

“I love you too much!” is my five-year-old granddaughter Brianna’s way to expresses her love. Can we love someone too much? I wonder.

When pondering about the “too much” love issue I heard an interesting program on the radio. The lady preacher talked about our “too much” God. He is a God that supplies not only our needs but also our wants and desires. I like to think of him as the God of “more than enough”!

I have a big desire to tap into the power of God like never before. I have walked with the Lord since I was a kid and I still feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of what God has in store for me. God’s amazing power is available; it’s been there all the time. Like the oil in the oil fields. It was there all the time but people had to discover it and come up with a way of extracting it. We can be walking on gold and not even know it!

In thinking and praying about this I came up with an outline. Let me quickly expand a little on it.

1. Pray earnestly. Elijah was a man just like us. “He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops” (James 5:17,18).

Why are we lacking in power and resources? “You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures” (James 4:2,3). The power is there for the asking, but the motive has to be to further the Kingdom of God.

James also tells us that when we ask, we must believe and not doubt, because when we doubt we are like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. Oh, that we had the resolve of Elijah, who prayed earnestly and saw miraculous results!

“The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:16).

 2. Wait expectantly. King David is a good example for us. “In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation” (Psalm 5:3). This is where childlike faith comes in. We ask the Father and then eagerly await the answer. I had a very vivid experience of this when I was praying for a husband. We had a day of prayer at the Bible School I attended and by the end of the day I had the assurance that my prayer was heard and answered. Eagerly I anticipated to meet the man of my dreams and started looking around for ministers with no ring on their finger. I figured it had to be someone that was in ministry since I was a missionary.

The assurance came with this verse: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us-whatever we ask-we know that we have what we asked of him” (1 John 5:14-15).

We need to be more expectant than the watchmen waiting for the morning. “I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning” (Ps 130:5,6).

 3. Work with endurance. And not only with endurance but enthusiastically and efficiently. We just keep on keeping on! What better example of endurance than the apostle Paul? He served God with endurance “in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love… sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything” (see 2 Cor 6:4-10).

Whatever our task, we need to “fix our eyes on Jesus” and continue doing his work (see Heb 12:2,3). If you are a mother and homemaker, raising your children and caring for your husband, that’s a wonderful ministry. Just keep at it the best you can and pray earnestly to tap into the power of God for this, at times, overwhelming task. If you are a father, working several jobs to keep food on the table for your family, do it with endurance as unto the Lord. He will never leave you nor forsake you. If you are a student, do the best to excel, always with the purpose of glorifying the Lord. Whoever you are and whatever your responsibilities are, do everything as best you can.

Probably none of us have to go through all the hardships that Paul had to endure, but even through all his sorrows ah was always rejoicing. The joy of the Lord is our strength!

4. Give thanks exuberantly. What better example of exuberant thanksgiving than Mary, Lazarus and Martha’s sister? When she poured expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet it was a quiet expression of love that filled the house with fragrance. I wonder how many of us would be willing to offer to Jesus the equivalent of one year’s wages. That was the cost of the perfume Mary poured out on Jesus’ feet (see John 12:1-8).

As the apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, we are to give thanks in all circumstances (1 Ts 5:18). We all have struggles and unanswered questions. What stands out in my mind is the devastation in the neighboring country of Haiti. It’s heartbreaking to think of 200,000 people dead and more than a million homeless. But yesterday I saw two unbelievable rescue operations: after two weeks people were pulled out from the rubble. Incredible! At the same time I’ve seen reports of people that haven’t found their loved ones; they might be buried in the massive graves. So much pain and suffering we don’t understand. But also such outpouring of help and support from people all over the world!

There is power to be had; such abundance of untapped power we cannot even imagine. Let’s pray earnestly, wait in expectation for the answer, work with endurance, and give thanks exuberantly. God is a “too much” God—there is no limit to his resources. Our lack of faith is what limits him. Like Brianna sais, he loves us “too much”! There is “too much” power for us to even comprehend. Our “too much” God has unlimited resources. Let’s not limit him by unbelief.

45 Years to Celebrate

I haven’t been keeping track, but for sure a friend in Sweden that I have corresponded with since the day it happened. What? I left for the mission field as “Sweden’s youngest missionary”! Anita, my friend, reminded me that it is now forty-five years since that day. How humbling to look back and see God’s faithfulness through the years!

I was sixteen years old when I started my ministry preparation at a Bible School in Gothenburg. I then went on to take an intensive mission course at a seminary and graduated at age eighteen, as their youngest student ever. Some months later I was on my way to Peru to start my life’s “missionary journey.” Airplane travel wasn’t yet very popular, so I boarded a ship and traveled by sea for over a month to reach my destination.

The first few years I worked with my parents, helping them run a Christian bookstore and plant a church in Huancayo. We had great resistance from the Catholic Church and people were afraid to come in to the meeting place and listen, but they would flock at the door. Dad learned very quickly not to invite people in because then they would disappear. The doors were big and they opened right out to the street so he would just “ignore” the crowd that gathered and preach to the inside audience, which in the beginning was just his wife and kids.

When I was ten years old God called me to work with children, and that has been my passion over the years. Since the children wouldn’t come in to our meeting place, we did Sunday school on the side walk, and also at the market place. We then invited the kids to jump in the car and get a ride, and we took them to our little church. The children were poor and never got to ride in a car so they loved the chance. Little by little we built up trust and we started filling up the meeting place. With time, the Sunday school grew to over 300 children. We even had radio and television programs with them.

Together with some of the "tv" kids

One of my friends from Bible school said the only thing I talked about was my desire to prepare teaching materials and train leaders. It was interesting to be reminded of it, since that very thing has been my life’s passion.

In 1966 I started a take-home-paper for kids, very simple but useful. I managed to purchase a mimeograph and with time printed the paper for wider distribution then just “my” Sunday school. My big dream of printing them in offset came true when I joined with missionaries in Bolivia and started a publishing business. Here is the logo for the paper. I did them in series of 20, identifying each series by changing the color on the letters LA PERLITA. I wrote lessons to go with it and managed to reach 9 series by the time God moved me on to “wider pastures” so to speak.

In 1988 we moved as a family to the United States. God opened the door to work with Life Publishers in the development of the curriculum Vida Nueva. I felt that was my “niche.” I had over twenty years of preparation for the task. I am so humbled and thankful to the Lord that he gave me the privilege to contribute to this children’s material that goes to all the Spanish-speaking countries. Like David said when he saw the display of colors in the car wash, “It’s totally amazing”!!

Over the years I have been able to visit several countries and do teaching seminars, another of my great passions. But I have really just scratched the surface. With my editorial responsibilities and the wife and mother part of my life there has not been much time to devote. With my empty nest and my plans for retirement I hope to pursue this ministry. I want to be a globetrotter for Jesus!

Receiving a "Thank-You" certificate in Nicaragua

I don’t want to take up more of your time with all my reminiscing, since I could go on forever. When we start remembering all the good things God has done for us and all the battles he has brought us through, there is no end to it. Let me finish with a picture of a little girl I met on one of my trips way up in the Andes Mountains. I even wrote a story about her in my La Perlita paper.

What a joy to tell her about Jesus!

All the years I worked with Life Publishers and then Gospel Publishing House these stories have been buried. Through the world wide web God has given me a forum to resurrect them. If you know someone that speaks Spanish and has kids or works with kids, give them the information to this link: http://misperlitas.wordpress.com Instead of rolling my thumbs and watching television in the evenings, I take great pleasure in preparing and publishing one story a week for kids. This keeps me alive and happy because ministering to kids is my life!

In celebrating 45 years of God’s faithfulness to me I’m looking forward to at least half as much more. Since I once was the “youngest” missionary, why not shoot for being “Sweden’s oldest missionary”? My dad will turn 90 this year and he is still going strong, serving in missions. The least I can do is to follow in his footsteps!

The Loneliest Day of My Life

January 19 the year my daughter Carina was born was the loneliest day of my life, a lonely day with a very productive result! We all have lonely days. None of them even close to the day our Savior hung on the cross, feeling the total emptiness and loneliness of being abandoned by God. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” My loneliness was not even close to that!

My husband and I were missionaries in the city of Huancayo in the Andes Mountains of Peru. In La Oroya, a mining town 75 miles away, there was an American hospital and they had the kindness of treating missionaries for free. That is why I was there, awaiting the birth of our baby. The day before my husband had taken me there for a check-up and my doctor said I had better stay at the hospital because the baby might come the next day.

I’m sure Bengt would have wanted to stay with me but we had our daughter Eva-Marie that needed her daddy, so he had to leave me there. The plan was that he would come back in a few days. So there I was, spending the day by myself, with no one to come visit and no telephone communication, because we had no phone. That evening my precious Carina made her arrival, a lovely and healthy bundle of joy.

How could I get word to my husband? The next day one of the nurses was kind enough to ask if there was something she could do for me. I gave her the number to my parent’s Christian Bookstore and she delivered the news! What a joy for me when the next day my husband arrived and presented me with a gorgeous flower arrangement for my “bravery.” I have to admit it was scary to be at that hospital all by myself, scary and lonely, but so worth it! Too bad I don’t have a color picture, but here is the proud father with out baby Carina and the flower arrangement. She is all bundled up because it was cold, with no central heating system. Carina was born 12.000 feet above sea level!

In honor of my precious girl, let me show off some pictures from her birthdays over the years and give you a quick review of some celebration traditions.

I didn’t know about the tradition here in the States to give the one-year-old a cake of her own and let her go all out on it. Here is my girl trying out the cake with two of the young people in the church we were co-pastoring.

That year we went to Sweden for furlough and had this beautiful studio picture taken.

When Carina turned five we lived in Chaclacayo, Peru and had a neighborhood party, with a piñata for the kids to enjoy. I have no photograph but a picture one of our friends drew.

A Swedish tradition is to surprise the birthday girl/boy with breakfast in bed and the presents. In the morning Carina got her presents and in the evening Tessan and Lotta, the girl’s twin friends came to visit. The great present of the day: a hamster!

At the time Carina turned nine we were involved in ministry in a Bible Institute in Peru. My mother instituted the tradition of celebrating the student’s birthdays with a cake for them. For many of them it was the first time they had a birthday celebration. Carina celebrated with student Benjamin. One of the single mothers in church hearing about the celebration came up with the idea that her youngest daughter was born on the same date as Carina. That way Camila got in on the party. It was too obvious that the little girl’s mother made up the story!

When Carina turned twelve, we had just moved to Bolivia and had not yet got furniture. I still wanted to celebrate her birthday and invited her friends from the Swedish School for missionary kids. We had a Japanese party and sat on the floor!

Here is a picture of my girl turning 13. I had me another teenager!

In South America the great birthday for a girl is when she turns 15, I would say it is the biggest birthday of your life! Carina celebrated her 15^th B-day in Bolivia. A big treat was to get her picture taken in a studio!

The Studio Picture

Then came our move to the United States and here our girl graduated from High School and slowly but surely started adapting to the American culture. We still kept our Swedish tradition for birthday celebrations. My husband liked us to display our presents on the table, so that’s what we did. Here is Carina turning twenty.

When Carina turned twenty-five we lived in Colorado Springs and had to change our tradition a bit. She lived in her own apartment so we had to make our way over there and surprise her. Then we threw a surprise party and invited all the friends at church. Sadly it interfered with some other activities so the turn-out was not that great.

A strawberry cake with real heavy whipping crème has always been a treat for us on birthdays. Here is the one for Carina’s thirties birthday. From then on she has been somebody else’s “baby,” and if she wants a cake like that she will have to bake it herself!

On this lonely day where I am I’ve enjoyed reminiscing about my “baby” celebrating her birthday where she is. I wonder, did she take the time to bake a cake?

What a blessing that lonely day turned out to be! I wonder where the kind doctor that helped me deliver Carina might be. He sure was right when he suggested I just stay at the hospital to avoid the back and forth 75-mile drive.

He should see us today!

The city is in ruins

“The city is in ruins,” was the words I heard as an 11-year-old visiting with missionary friends in Lima, Peru, when a powerful earthquake hit the city of Arequipa on January 15, 1958. My family was in Arequipa (over 600 miles away) and I had no means of communicating with them. I don’t remember the emotions I had at that moment, but I do remember wondering what I would do, being left all alone in a foreign country, because, if the city was in ruins, for sure my parents and siblings were dead!

What a relief when, later on, someone heard over the radio the message that my parents were okay. We had no telephone service. This is my mother’s recollection of the incident:

“I was taking my afternoon nap when the house started to shake. I stayed in bed thinking that it would soon pass. But the movement became more forceful. Per [my husband] opened the door and shouted, ‘Come out quickly!’ He had been in the backyard with our two smallest kids. I cried out, ‘Where is Ingrid?’ ‘I don’t know,’ Per answered. I wanted to run back to the house, but Per took hold of me and said, ‘If the house collapses it is enough if one dies.’ All this happened in some few seconds. The length of the quake was about thirty seconds, even though we felt it as a long, long time. After the quake we went to look for Ingrid [our second child]. She had run out on the street and there she stood and said, ‘I thought it was so funny to see when the houses were shaking.’

“Many houses were severely damaged, but not the one were we lived. Some things had fallen from the shelves. I thought that God knew who was going to live in that house and therefore it had been well constructed. We went up on the flat roof and looked toward the center of the city. All we could see was a big cloud of dust. Many people were afraid to sleep in their houses and some came to us for some nights. As the earthquake struck in the afternoon most people were awake and could escape the collapsing houses. Only about twenty-five people died. If it had happened during the night there would have been many more fatalities.”

A sample of the damage

Mother receiving some water

People waiting at the public telephone to send messages to loved ones

Repairs on a house

The above house was across the street from us. Later on some Assemblies of God missionaries, the Mocks, rented it. When my parents moved on to work in Tarma, I stayed with them for two months to finish the school year. So I have lived in that house!

The devastation in Arequipa was minimal compared to what we have seen reported from the earthquake in Haiti this passed week. I have been amazed at how help and support pours in. When disaster strikes, we are sure one big family, and so in should be. The Golden Rule applied in all its force: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you!”

The only connections I have with Haiti are some friends that have been missionaries there. I don’t need to have a connection with that country, but I need and I have an uninterrupted connection with a Higher Source. I can pray for the precious people that are trying to pick up the pieces; I can pray for those that have lost loved ones.

Haiti is going to need our prayers and our help for a long time. Destruction can come in a second, but construction and rebuilding takes time. When our news media moves on to other incidents, let’s keep this country in prayer before the Lord. And whatever “answer to our prayers” God would prompt us to do, let’s do it!

I wonder how many children in Haiti have the same devastating feeling I had 52 years ago, when I thought I was left all alone in this world. May they find refuge in the Father that never leaves us nor forsakes us!

“A father to the fatherless,
a defender of widows,
is God in his holy dwelling” (Ps 68:5).

Living by the 60/40 Principle

I was encouraged today by a friend; she wrote me a note saying she missed my blogs. It’s been a little quiet on this front, but fighting a chest congestion and a persistent cough doesn’t leave much room for inspiration. But I’m slowly recovering and I can’t just sit around and roll my thumbs, so here comes another contribution to what Solomon called, “Of making many books there is no end” (Eccl 12:12). He was a prolific writer. Just think if he had lived today. I bet he would have been on the top of all bloggers!

Several years ago I heard this principle that was taught by a professor at Hope College in Holland, Michigan: “Give in 60 percent of the time. Expect no more than 40 percent from someone else.” I remember that I advised my daughter and her future husband to live by that principle. In other words: give more and expect less.

The Golden Rule is to do unto others as we would want them to do unto us. I would take it a step further and suggest we treat others better than we expect to be treated. Generosity always pays ample dividends.

I’m entertaining myself by going through a notebook I have filled with quotes I have picked up along the way, from books, sermons and personal devotions. I started writing them down after my daughter’s death eight years ago and in honor of her memory I used a variety of colors. She loved color pens and left me quite a collection. Try using colors in your journaling; it will brighten your day and your thoughts!

Here are some good thoughts on kindness, which will inspire us to spread the fragrance of Christ and live by the 60/40 principle:

Kindness is the insignia of a loving heart.

Kindness is the ability to love people more than they deserve.

Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind see.

Kindness is like snow; it makes everything it covers beautiful.

A kindness done today is the surest way to a brighter tomorrow.

We can never show kindness too soon, because we never know how soon it will be too late.

The greatest thing we can do for our Heavenly Father is to be kind to his children.

To be kind is to sow love. In the law of sowing and reaping there is a catch: you always reap more than you sow! A few years ago my husband played a trick on me. He dumped a small package of pumpkin seeds in my flower garden! I’ll tell you that what you reap from pumpkin seeds is big; they take over. That summer we had pumpkins all over the place. I’m showcasing a few that I organized very properly once I harvested them.

The Bible tells us it is more blessed to give then to receive. “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously” (2 Cor 9:6).

Jesus said, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Luke 6:38).

May God help us this year, and all the years to come, to be a little kinder and treat each other better than we expect to be treated! The 60/40 principle will bring a great harvest!

The Blessing of a Warm House

The first week of this year has been miserably cold in a great part of this beautiful country I have the privilege to call mine. By choice (and out of neccesity for my oldest daugther’s sake) I am a citizen of the United States. I lost my Swedish citizenship but I have been able to regain it. Above all, I’m a citizen of Heaven!

It’s not fun to start the year sick, but what a privilege to have a warm house and a warm bed. I have been thinking so much about the homeless in the bitter cold. The city authorities have asked the churches to step up and help because the shelters are not enough to house everybody.

In sub-zero temperatures and nowhere to seek shelter… what a hopeless situation! I can’t stop thanking God that I have a home, even if it is a lonely place. Not really, I keep a constant conversation going with my Lord and Savior. And this week I  pleaded for him to have mercy on me and be my “antibiotics” for this cough and congestion I have. And I have also exercised thanksgiving and praise.

Whenever we feel that life is not fair, if we by chance have any complaints, let’s just take a look at the prophet Jeremiah. He had a lonely life and a difficult mission. God even ordered him not to get married and have children. He was persecuted because of the message he was sent to deliver. His brothers, his own family, betrayed him.

Jeremiah should have had someone like David to brighten his days. His head is full of ideas, just like this grandmother of his. At our mini vacation last week, there was a chessboard painted on the table, but no tokens to play with. So David challenged me with a game of car-chess. Of course, he found a way to win! Because for a six-year-old it’s all about winning!

Are you up for a car-chess game?

I’ve missed something important this week. We were going to have prayer at church every evening. Prayer is such a powerful weapon and such comforting practice! No, it’s more. It’s the oxygen for our Christian life. The Word is our food and Prayer is the air we breathed. That way we stay alive and healthy.

I have just published a story on my Spanish “misperlitas”  page, which is for children and children’s workers. It’s about an English missionary that years ago had to travel in China. He and his travel companion had to camp out by the road side. Some time later a bandit came to the mission-hospital and told the missionary that he and his gang were going to attack him that night he camped out by the road side, but they were afraid because he had 27 soldiers in white surrounding him.

Twenty-seven angel-soldiers

The missionary tried to tell him he never traveled with soldiers as security guards, but the bandit was adamant. He had seen them, and he had counted them: 27 to be exact! What had happened? Back home, some friends at church had a prayer meeting and they prayed especially for this particular missionary. How many were at the prayer meeting? 27 to be exact! They prayed in England and God sent angels in China!

Testimonies like this one are so encouraging. Let’s keep up the good prayer work. Let’s keep a happy and positive spirit even if we have to be cooked up in the house because of the cold or because we have a cold. What a blessing that we have a house! And as we are praying, let the homeless be at the top of the list. Of course, when we pray we have to be willing for God to use us as answers to our prayers!

I don’t remember the story exactly but there was prayer offered for someone who needed a pig. A child, listening to the prayers of her father, said to him: “Dad, you have a pig!” In other words, you can answer that prayer!

Until next time, keep warm in the cold of winter, or cool in the heat of summer. It all depends on your circumstances! Isn’t it funny? Some of us are freezing and others, like my Dad in Lima, Peru are sweating!

It’s late. I need to get some shut-eye! Before you know it, I’ll be back! If not, see you in Heaven! We never know; any minute could be the moment of the great meeting in the sky with our Lord!!!! Alleluia!!!

Christmas is not over

Christmas is over, but not at my house. When 5-year-old Brianna came by on New Year’s Eve she asked me, “Why do you have the Christmas stuff still out? Christmas is over.” It’s nostalgic to put away the Christmas stuff. I like my gingerbread-men curtains and my red table coverings and my candles. Now I have an excuse to keep them out for a while because we have an arctic cold wave so I can’t go out in the garage. The other reason is that I’m sick!

I had a mini vacation with my daughter and her family, which I couldn’t enjoy very much. I spent Saturday in bed. David’s observation was that I was being lazy. When I told him I was sick, he said, “Mormor, you’re not acting sick!” If he was here today he’d have a different opinion.

I have to think of something positive to forget this miserable condition. Let me tell you about a Christmas gift that was very special to me. A former co-worker that lives in Florida sent me a package. She knows I’m Swedish, and since there is an IKEA in her area she got me a Swedish present: a heart-shaped box with chocolates. It was wrapped together with a soft, white “throw” to warm not only my heart but my legs and feet, too.

You never know how much an act of kindness can mean. Thirteen years ago while we as a family were living in Colorado Springs, I overheard a boy a week before Thanksgiving telling his friends they were not going to have a celebration at his house because there was no extra money. Then I heard a voice, which I recognized as the Lord’s, telling me to give the family fifty dollars.

I had no extra fifty dollars! The next day a Thanksgiving card came from my friend that sent me the chocolates, and together with the card, a check. You guessed it! $50! What a joy it was to pass it on to a family that otherwise would not have celebrated Thanksgiving.

Christmas might be over but may the Spirit of Christmas follow us all through the year. There are so many ways to spread love. I heard something interesting yesterday and I’m putting it here in a quote:

Love is an expanding thing. There is always room for more. The more you open your heart to share love and embrace those in need, the more love grows and expands. And when a loved one leaves us, there is a big, gaping hole that needs to be filled. And that hole can be filled with LOVE!

Christmas as we celebrate it might be over, but let’s keep the Spirit and the Love of Christmas with us all through the year. May every day be a celebration of praise for God’s gift of Salvation!