Christmas Boots
Last Saturday was the Hoyt family’s annual Christmas Tree tradition. Pile into the car. Breakfast at Eat-n-Park. Christmas CDs playing. Drive through the countryside to Ski Tree Farm in Saxonburg. Gloves on, saw in one hand, tape measure in the other, kids run up the hill with sleds in hand. This year they learned that their sleds work almost as well on a steep slope of hard frozen grass. We hunt for the perfect white pine – always white pines because they smell the best.
Up early that morning, as I was pulling on my boots in the basement, I felt something lumpy and pebbly down in the toes of the boots. I took them back off, turned them over and out came the red sands and white rocks of New Mexico, left over from our mission trip back in June. I went with our church youth to Santa Fe to work with Habitat for Humanity. While on the site we had met a few of the families who would be moving into the houses. They were mostly single moms and their children struggling to get back on their feet.
In a mildly mystical moment, I felt the connection between my family’s excursion that morning to cut down a tree, and our missionary endeavors this past summer. God blessed me with boots and the feet that go in them, to prepare the way for his coming. God came as a poor child born to a mother in Bethlehem who had no decent housing in which to give birth. And still God comes today when compassion compels us to work to provide decent housing to poor children and their mothers.
Christmas joy is more than sentimental memories of lights and greenery and bright packages, but the profound knowledge that we are participating in God’s ongoing work of redeeming the world. Jesus is still coming today and every day. Where are we seeking him?
Thank you for this revelation. Someting to keep and ponder in my heart during this time of year and always.
Thanks for the reminder of what Christmas is all about. Also the memories of Eat’n'Park and Ski’s tree farm we used to do about the same thing. Including freezing hands and feet , that we don’t miss.
Amazing!
And, by the way, I grew up not far from that tree farm.
Your post doesn’t need much commenting….
“God blessed me with boots and the feet that go in them…”
That pretty much sums it up.
Your comments re a timely reminder that this is a time of year for refelection; and also a time for a renewed stewardship commitment of our time and talents to those who are in need.
Mike, God hands us all of the tools that we need to do our jobs every day. We don’t always know how to use those tools , but if we listen closely, he will teach us how to use them. I have tools at work that I have used for many years, and as I use them , I am always reminded of other jobs I have done over the years.
We need to constantly remember the jobs that God has given us , and the tools He has given us to do those jobs. He has provided all that we need to do His work. I try to seek Him in pretty much every thing that I do during my day, and it is not always easy.
Blessings,
Al
Al, I remember you making use of your tools in NC on the youth mission trip several years ago. You made wonderful use of his gifts even if you didn’t realize it (and still do). Blessings!