A Gift that Meets Our Need Is The Very Best

  “Oh. It’s only clothes. “I had an idea when I was younger that all Christmas presents should be something you don’t need. I think others helped me in forming this idea.

Gradually my idea of the perfect present has changed.

Others helped me change my ideal.

It occurred to me last week that Jesus was the perfect present and that this gift is totally the point of Christmas. The sum of the gift is to meet our need.

My little new granddaughter who was neglected by being given all the extras and few of the needs is a great illustration of how much filling our needs is something to be desired and celebrated. She was unable to discuss with  us or walk with us or play and romp like a Kindergarten age child should be able to. She even had some difficulty swallowing and chewing because she had been fed junk food so much that she didn’t have to chew, allowed to grab it off a plate when and if she decided to as she watched video after video after video.

It’s the new American way to warp children. Demand nothing of them. Simply plop them in front of a video with junk food and ignore them. The make no mess method of child-rearing.

But she changed as her life changed when she began to live with her father  and his new wife last summer and was given good wholesome food,exercise and responsibility and was listened to and talked to and taught how to use a toilet. Then how to turn pages of a book and how to drink out of a cup and how to have a conversation, tell a joke, sing a song, pray a prayer. Her legs and arms got stronger and she learned how to help make a meal and how to dress herself and choose her own clothes.

She has changed a lot because the kind of love she was given was the kind that helped her see how much she can do. She has changed because her needs were met ahead of her wants. Her desires changed because what was given her was good.

I think of that this Christmas.

and

I am convinced that the best presents fill needs not our wants.
Jesus is the Christmas gift of what we need. First God meets our needs then with our need met we can rejoice over butterflies and flowers and rainbows.  But what good is the extra stuff without our basic needs being met. If we die in our sin. What good is a candy bar anyway?

Hello world!

Welcome to Wouldn’tchaknow it!

  The sun is shining and I am starting anew with this my old column from my newpapering days!

  I’ve been considering it for a year or more and today with #6 and #5 having danced out the door excitedly to go retreating and rallying with several thousand who like them like Jesus I decided to take the dive. There are so many words jostling for a chance to come out of my head to play upon the computer screen it is hard to choose which ones to give life to and which ones to save.

I am after all a chronic saver. Papa laughs at me and says I may be good for the environment but I am bad for ours due to all my saving for this and for that and you never know when it will come in handy to have this…..

  The log house is so quiet with not only #6,#5 and papa gone away but also #1 to #4 and even two little ones and three hubbies added to the clan but missing from the homestead. The red cocker is  snoring in the sunshine and the cats are banned to the outside.

  PreEaster when I had the taste of spring weather I dashed to the garden and planted several small rows of peas. Before that I started tomatoe plants which are growing happily on two chairs in front of a southern window and right at the last minute before Easter I sprinkled some pansy seeds on potting soil and they are just peeking out of the crumbles of dirt now.

  On the kitchen windowsill I have my one remaining rosemary plant flanked by two orchid corsages standing stiffly one each side to remind us that the Lord has risen indeed and the plants will be back soon from under their blanket of snow just as He came back from the grave. I see green daffodil and jonquil leaves coming out in tufts here and there at the edge of the lawn now! Oh what a relief it is to have the sun shine and the snow stop for one day!