Psalm 100:4
.....Be Thankful to Him, and bless His name.
Did something unusual this Christmas season...
I usually take a Christmas eve walk and find myself marveling at the quietness on this most Holy evening....
I said many times that is seems as though God has stood up and commanded the world to be still in honor of the birth of His Son. But yesterday morning as I walked out to get the paper, the quietness was already there. No wind blowing....not breeze 1....no traffic sounds.....no neighbor's heat pumps or furnaces making any noise....no dogs barking or squirrels running back and forth. No sound what so ever. I stood there in the middle of our street just taking it all in....
As our day progressed, I looked back over our weekend of celebration.
Friday night we celebrated Vicki's birthday in fine fashion. Being born on December 22nd, Vicki always seem to get the proverbial short straw when it came to birthday's. As relatives would send her gifts, they came with a caveat..."This can be your birthday AND Christmas gift." So since we were married back in 1972, it has been my mission and my heart's desire to make sure that her birthday was a stand alone event.
The entire Clan Bynum went to Kobi Steakhouse at the mall and hooted and yelled as our chef worked his magic on the grill....We laughed and shared each other's company so as to make more memories we could pull out in the future when life gets hard. Isn't that what family is all about? The memories. I think maybe yes.
Yesterday afternoon, we took to the highway and drove to Northside to be with Mom. She was in rare fashion and seemed to enjoy the entire family coming to see her. I took my guitar and we sang Christmas carols. Well, it was something like singing as we may have mangled a few of the traditional song. We did manage to pull off the entire 12 days of Christmas, and between the partridges..and the leaping Lords which was a feat in and of itself. My son Chad read the Christmas story, and we took communion to close out our visit. Very grateful for Mom and the influence she has had (and continues to have) on our family.
The tradition of Christmas Eve movies continued, as we took in a matinee of Star Wars.... Afterwards, home for some of Vicki's home made pizza, another slice of our family tradition. Eventually making our way to the living room we watched portions of IT's A WONDERFUL LIFE. I have a lot in common with George Bailey....except I didn't have to have angelic intervention to discover how rich I really am.
I pulled out a DVD or Christmas past, as we took in the Bynum Christmas from 1986 and 1988. Who were those folks? They were so young. My daughter in law, Heather, particularly loved seeing her husband when he was 9 years old. I threatened Josh with the idea of me posting this video on Youtube. I believe I could have gotten a new car out of him If I simply destroyed the entire DVD. Just kidding, he loved seeing a portion of his childhood played out on the TV.
As I settled in for the night, before drifting off, I couldn't help but be overcome with emotion at the thought of how faithful God has been to us. I don't mean in a material fashion or by unloading tons of stuff at our doorstep. I mean the thought that when it's my time to leave this old world, there will have been memories made....love that will continue to be shared among my children.....a desire to simply follow God each day....and a lot of laughter to draw from.
Move over George Bailey...
You've got company....
Merry Christmas From The "B's" In Attalla...
God on you..
mbb
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