Christmas Memories: The True Light

December 10, 2014~ Faith, Guest Posts

Memories. Christmas always evokes memories for me, as I’m sure it does most of you. Unwrapping ornaments from our varied travels both far and wide, pulling out my Mother’s tattered fruitcake recipe to bake for my Daddy, removing the dust from Seth’s first little train and placing it under the tree, and even singing a beloved Christmas carol like “Silent Night, Holy Night”! Today also holds a very special memory. On this day two years ago, I invited a casual acquaintance for coffee. From that beginning, God has brought a deep and meaningful friendship and a “chosen daughter” into my life that I never expected. I have asked Katy to share a Christmas memory. She is no stranger to our blog. Katy wrote an inspirational post for us in September and you can read here: Don’t Whittle It Away!

Our desire is that you see that the Light has come!

“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying,
‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life'”
John 8:12

There is something about lights during the Christmas season that always has and probably always will catch my attention. As a little girl, my parents would drive us around to see Christmas lights several nights during December! My paternal grandfather DECKED his house out for as long as I can remember with the big colored lights, reindeer on his rooftop, and plastic carolers in his yard.

All of my life, we have gathered at my Nana’s on Christmas Eve. I have ten first cousins, so we packed out their small home on a farm in Cedartown, GA. We would always scarf down our traditional Christmas meal so that we could open our gifts, but that isn’t the main reason we were in a hurry!

About three miles from their house sits the county fairgrounds. There are tall towers that you can see for miles-and one has a blinking red light on the top. In my eyes, as a little girl, it was none other than Rudolph himself-and it was magical! (Keep in mind that every night of the year, you could see this light. But every year on Christmas Eve, it seemed to shine a bit brighter!) So, we would eat really fast, open our gifts and all run outside to see the light—and make our best guess as to where Santa was. I have always been a little type A, so I was annoying about getting home and in the bed so that Santa and Rudolph would be sure to stop by my house! Undoubtedly it was the only night out of 365 that I actually wanted to go to bed! That light made me want to be a good little girl and obey!

There really is just something about lights that truly are magical! My grandfather passed away in 2009 and he still had those big bulbs stapled to his house. I have one of those bulbs in a shadow box along with a picture of his house all lit up that I pull out every year around this time. Precious, precious memories!

Now, as an adult, my focus has shifted from those kinds of lights and that blinking red light at the county fairgrounds to the True Light that has come into the world.

orange

I am just now learning my decorating style, and I am a “less is more” kind of girl. I decided to go all natural for Christmas!

My first nativity, a gift that will always be so very special to me, given to me a few weeks ago! I love it because it is simple and has meaning- handcrafted from real olive trees in Bethlehem! It was the first Christmas that I put out this year and my prayer is that it stays the focal point!

“Rejoice, O world, your Savior has come
Through the love of a virgin’s womb
Son of God, Son of man
You were born that we may have life”
-Chris Tomlin

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An Unexpected Journey

October 2, 2014~ Faith, Guest Posts

Our guest on the blog today is our nephew, Joel Davis. Joel and his beautiful wife, Claire, met while they were students at Samford University. They have three precious boys, Isaiah, Benjamin “Benji”, and Nico. God has given this couple a heart for the orphaned children in our world. As Americans, it is so easy to sit comfortably in our homes and think very little, if at all, of the “least of these”. May God speak to our hearts as we read the journey that has taken Joel and Claire half way around the world to some of the darkest places in Africa!

“We adopt not because we are rescuers. No, we adopt because we are the rescued.” – David Platt

Six years ago, my wife and I took our first trip to a home for street children in the jungles of Peru. During that trip, God began to impress James 1:27 on our hearts. Over the next couple years we continued to visit this home, as well as an orphanage in Haiti. Each time, our hearts were drawn more strongly toward the orphans and street children of the world. As we reached a point in our lives where we felt ready for children, God gave us an unexpected desire: to adopt before attempting to have biological children. We met Isaiah on Thanksgiving Day in 2010. Both our lives and his were forever changed that hot and muggy day in the heart of Africa. Isaiah became our son and we are eternally blessed to have him in our family. It wasn’t long after we saw God’s work in Isaiah’s life and our own that we began to feel His calling again. What? How? That’s crazy! We are still paying the exorbitant adoption expenses from Isaiah’s process; still getting used to a two year old and learning to be parents. Are we really ready to put ourselves through this tough process again? But God’s love for the fatherless had been branded on our hearts and there was no question we were adopting again. Through prayer, God led us to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a little 3 month old boy named Nico. To tell you a little about the Congo; over 5 million people have been killed in civil wars, 30,000 children have been enlisted as child soldiers and it is widely considered the poorest country on earth with 60 million people living on less than $1 a day. Without question, it is one of the most dangerous countries on earth in which to grow up, let alone be an orphan. What we thought would be a one year process turned into a three year odyssey that included the birth of our biological son Benji (now two) and me (Joel) spending nine weeks stuck in the Congo this time last year. Three months ago, God opened an improbable door and Nico was given the final clearance to come home. He is fitting in perfectly and already loves his new brothers.

You are probably wondering what prompted us to adopt. Our reason for adopting was and is wholly identified in Christ’s love for us. The picture of His love gave us the desire to remove a child permanently from an orphanage and nurture that child as his parents as Christ has his children. There are many things God has used to draw our hearts and move us to adopt; here are a few from His word:

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. – James 1:27

…In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us… – Ephesians 1:4-6

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. – John 14:18

Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. God settles the solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land. – Psalm 68:5-6

The question I ask you isn’t whether God has called you to serve the orphaned and poor, HE HAS, the question is, are you going to be obedient…

Don’t Whittle it Away!

September 1, 2014~ Faith, Guest Posts

Butch and I (along with Seth and Allison) are taking a few days to enjoy God’s beautiful creation. Please stay tuned for lots of pictures and stories to follow! In the meantime, we wish to introduce you to our very first guest blogger, Katy Watters.

We have known Katy for about two years, but our hearts were immediately knit together in common faith. We have welcomed her into our family and she has become like our daughter. She has an amazing God-given gift of writing and I strongly recommend that you follow her blog here. Now, I will let you in on a little secret: Butch and I would have never been able to put this blog together without her!!

Don’t Whittle It Away!

Noccalula Falls is where you can find me on any given weekday during my lunch break. I guess you can say it has become a part of my everyday living. When the clock strikes noon, I head up the mountain to enjoy my hour of respite from office work. Last Wednesday, something different happened and I feel like I learned a little lesson in living.

Staying true to my routine, I sat at one of the picnic tables in the shade as I ate my lunch. I was catching up on Instagram posts, emails, and Facebook from the morning. I was nearly finished eating when I noticed a man walking close. He was headed towards MY SWING. Now, I guess that needs a little explanation. I have a swing that I usually sit in after I finish eating lunch every day, and I love it—it is so peaceful! For some reason, it is rarely taken and I like to think that God reserves it just for me. But today, my swing was going to be occupied. And I was just going to have to deal. And I am sure glad it was!

The man sat down, and he had this long stick and a knife. Weird combo for most, but I knew what he was about to do: whittle, of course! You see, when I was a little girl, I loved pigs. (Random, I know, but don’t we all have our quirks??) Anyway, my dad had one of his co-workers carve me a little pig to put on my night stand. It was one of my favorite things—that whittled pig. This man was about to whittle—sitting right there on my swing. So I just decided to ask him about it. “Are you about to whittle?” I asked him. He perked up…”I sure am, what do you know about it?” So I told him the story about my whittled pig. It got us into conversation, but what he said next–I hope and pray–will stay with me for the rest of my years. “I like to whittle. It passes the time for me. I need something to help me waste time these days.” He said a few more things that I didn’t really hear because I was still processing the previous comment. He was whittling his life away. We talked about his previous marriages, his grandchildren, and his retirement from the Steel Plant. But I couldn’t help but think of how this man was literally and figuratively whittling his life away. It is what he was spending his days doing. As I looked at the shavings on his lap that would soon be part of the dirt at his feet, I was learning a lesson in living. We have a choice as to how we approach this life:

We can waste it and whittle it away or we can invest it and live.

And it seems very fitting that I would be asked to do this guest post and then God, in his providence, would bring the whittling man into my lunch hour.

And just so you know…Butch and Pam told me I could have freedom to say what I wanted on their blog today, so I will take advantage:

You see, the whittling man showed me what it looked like to waste my days, while The Richardson’s have shown me how to live my days. I have been most blessed to be “adopted” into the Richardson family. They have truly invited me into their everyday living. And by that, I simply mean we do life together. And there is much wisdom to be learned from their lives. I love to watch them invest their lives into each other and into the lives of those around them. They enjoy life and people—because they see that both are good gifts from The Father. And I am sure glad that they do, because my life is different because of it!! There is a clear difference when you live life with purpose—and that purpose being the glory of God and the good of all peoples. As I grow older, I want my life to count. I want to make an eternal impact. I want to truly live.

I just love how God meets us in our routine, often mundane events, and shows us more about himself. And if we just take time to listen to others stories, which most of the time I never do, God always shows up. He reveals himself through nature, people, random scenarios, and even the random whittling man who steals your swing on your lunch break.

“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”
Psalm 90:12