Wednesday AM

    BRRRR!!  As I awoke this morning at 6:00, the temperature outside was a brisk 1^o C or 33^o F (it actually went to 32 by 8:00). It is 58^o INSIDE the house. With few exceptions, our houses do NOT have a heating system inside. We use a lot of blankets and several layers of clothes. We have a small gas heater for the worst of times, but it certainly cannot heat the house. It reminds me of my grandmother’s house when I was growing up. She had a double-sided fireplace that could heat two rooms of the house, one on each side of the dividing wall. On really cold nights, one side of you burned (next to the fire) while the other side of you froze. It was truly a paradox. Absolutely, freezing and burning at the same time were possible.

     My mind always goes to our neighbors who have a tin roof and very breezy windows and doors. Many of them have no means of heating. Almost thirty years ago, a lady from near here taught me the first “dicho” I learned (familiar saying): Pointing to the rising sun she said “The overcoat of the poor.” So often I see the folks here immediately hunting the sunny or shadow side of the street, just to walk a few blocks. We find ourselves walking on whichever side we happen to be, but they always seek the correct side (sun to warm up, shadow to stay cool) within seconds of starting up a street.

     We are looking forward to our Posada (Christmas Program) on the 11^th and then the presentation of Creation on the 18^th. On the Tuesday in between, Ann’s mother, Casey Stribling, will be arriving for the holidays. I suggested she bring long underwear and then we could guarantee temperatures in the 80’s. We look forward to spending the holidays with family and sharing the wonders of His first coming. Years ago, someone questioned our using Christmas (a pagan holiday) as a Christian celebration. I explained to them that especially here, Christmas in not about a mythological personage. It IS a time when the whole world pauses to think about the birth of a Savior. We seek not to glorify the holiday, but to lift His name before the world while their hearts are soft.

     As we face battles, victories and occasionally a disappointment, we realize that they are simply symptoms of the coming days. Each evening before retiring, I have been studying the book of Revelation. It certainly makes you realize that we are in the last days and that His coming cannot be long in coming to pass. Man is losing all sense of God’s presence and importance and is turning more and more toward self. We join in the chorus, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”