53 DAYS LEFT

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52 DAYS LEFT...

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I've been on the kids unit for the past two months and tonight I got put on call. We are empty.

IT'S A LANCE SIGHTING!!!!!

Sea Pony 07 said:

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I've been on the kids unit for the past two months and tonight I got put on call. We are empty.

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MERRY CHRISTMAS Everyone

Merry Christmas

50


A nice even 50 is my Christmas present to y'all.

Merry Christmas! And Happy 50 more days until baseball season!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals!

Merry Xmas!

Merriest of Christmases to you all!

Merry Christmas to the best Aggie Sports Fans....AGGIE BASEBALL!

Merry Christmas.

War Fish says, "Merry Christmas to the Aquarium!"
Baseball season is just around the corner!

This Christmas is...different.

My dad, who ministered the Gospel of Jesus Christ rather literally around the world, is absent from the body and present with our Lord.

If your father wasn't a pastor who spoke to an entire congregation but always saw what you were doing, you might not understand what I mean.

You see: he was a man with many challenges and flaws. HIs dad and mom were alcoholics and smokers. His dad wasn't always around. He might have been unfaithful to his mom. But he taught my dad to work and work hard and work long. My dad became a Southern Baptist as a turn from his parents choices. He already was a believer though, strangely, I do not remember his testimony of coming to Jesus.

Mine, I do remember and might have shared parts of it. My EARLIEST memory was being on a door step at the fromt stoop of the apartment where we lived in Dallas that Mom calls the "Bachmann Apartments." To my best memory, which was about three-years old, it possibly was near Bachman Lake near Love FIeld and has a runway lifting planes off over it.

I'm sure that made it affordable for a recent pastoral graduate of then Howard Payne College and his wife and two sons, one three and a half, the other probably six months old. It was not particularly warm that day, but it also wasn't cold in my memory's Kodachrome picture. I knew my brother was named Jeff and he was in a baby carrier. My mom was always with the two of us. Dad was likely downtown in Dallas at Thomas Cook near where the Dealey Plaza.

It wasn't that November. I don't remember the date because when you're three and a half, you just don't live your life like that. I'm lucky to remember that day!

The next clear, specific memory, was Mom and Dad bringing home my next brother, Jason. we were in the married student apartments on Seminary Drive on the second floor in a quite cozy two bedroom apartment. Jeff and I shared a bunk bed (I had the top since he was about that same three and a half...I was almost five.)

Dad and Mom graduated from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in May of 1968. We moved to Lawn, Texas that summer. It was a tiny, rural town surrounded by farm land and lots of places for a now almost eight year old to wander to find the boundaries. I remember that town well and the Lawn Baptist Church equally well. I remember the people and their love for us. And I was aware that we were "making do" a lot.

I learned to pick and shuck peas in Mrs. Smith's garden. She was the grandmother of my friend and classmate Sandy whose dad was the chairman of the deacons and was kind and tall. (I saw Sandy and her mom, brother, and sister at a key anniversary of the church about 10 years ago or so.)

I remember learning from my dad how to clean up the sanctuary after Sunday church and helped with mowing the lawn (in Lawn...oh the irony!!) for our home. I had to avoid the somewhat sketch area around the septic tank that was working on becoming the first sinkhole I witnessed. We had a barrel out back where we incinerated trash which, being a city boy previously, was an odd but awesome responsibility especially when I was allowed to light it (and even better when Mom had an empty hair spray aerosol can to put in it!!)

One Saturday, while Dad was preparing for Sunday services by studying to preach (really finishing...he studied all week which it turns out was one of the things I didn't learn well from him!!!), he had asked me to come with him and to check the whole church for things that needed attention and to take care of them. I tried to stay focused, but I can't promise I didn't distract myself somehow!!

He called to me and invited me into his office to talk with him. It was March 2, 1969 which happened to be my first cousin Wendy's birthday which made it memorable (yes I know about the San Jacinto Day, too, but remembered Wendy's birthday better!!) I don't remember being called into his office previously thougyh in Sweetwater we did have conversations in that office and I was in the business of borrowing Bibles from him when I forgot, too!! (And, yes, bringing them back!!!)

I don't remember all of the conversation, but he did ask me if I knew what sin was. I nodded yes. He asked me if I had sinned. I felt I kind of did, but at the moment might not have a specific one in mind. So I lied and said yes, and then felt the gentle urge of the Holy Spirit nudge me and I realized that was a sin. He asked me if I knew why Jesus had come to earth and why he had died? I gave the short, late second-grade version which he helped fill in with a few more details and then applied it to me like he did in his sermons.

He told me that I could invite Jesus in my life and he would forgive that sin and cleanse me of unrighteousness. I agreed with him that would be a good thing and he led me in a sinner's prayer that as my dad he built right there especially for me and we prayed it together.

I came down the aisle the next day after spending a little time thinking about what that meant and also allowing others who might want to come to talk to my dad first. He reiterated what we had discussed and then told me that I needed to be baptized next (which I understood.)

It was a couple of Sundays later so my maternal grandparents could be there for the baptism. Dad, of course, as the pastor was to perform the baptism. There was a snag. The baptistry water heater was out of commission. It was March. And, yes, that day was making the day even more memorable by being extra cold!!! I noted Dad had waders and took a mental note afterwards to make sure I had some the next time!!

That was just the beginning, of course. But my first Christmas when he isn't around at all brings for the memories in plenty. I am not sad to lose him. His dementia was awful and I hated seeing the man I grew up depending on losing his independence.

But he loved the Lord with all of his heart and even when he made mistakes, he did everything he could to make what he could make right, and then gave the rest to God to forgive and then went back to work serving him. Christmas means so much to me because my dad served the one who came faithfully for a lifetime. I was there for 65 years of it, and I still cannot fathom what that is like, in all honesty.

Yes...that has the Gospel story in it. That is because I'm my father's, and, because of him, my Father's son.

Merry Christmas...and may God rest YOU merry in Him.

Charlie 31 said:

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War Fish says, "Merry Christmas to the Aquarium!"
Baseball season is just around the corner!

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Merry Christmas, War Fish!

Christmas desserts! Gingerbread cheesecake and figgy pudding

WE WON'T GO UNTIL WE GET SOME.

Beautifully written Greg. Right from the heart (where, obviously, Jesus has taken up residence).

I lost my dad at 98 three years ago. Mom, 17 years before that. I still miss them both. My wife & I talked about our first Christmas together 50 years ago - the stories we remember of the parents & grandparents are vivid.

God bless you, brother.

The ENTIRE reason I learned to make figgy pudding is because Malcolm was OBSESSED with that song when he was 2 and begged me for one.
It took a good bit of research and some complete rewrites of recipes to get one that would work with easily accessible ingredients here. We liked it so much that we make one every year now.