I spent the Holidays with my parents in Northern Idaho where I believe Christmas should be spent. I love living in California 50 weeks out of the year, but it’s the two weeks I can be in the snow, trees, and mountains where I think Christmas is Christmas. Then I get to come back to the remaining part of the year where it’s 72 and sunny the rest of winter.
As I look back at this Christmas, there is something that sticks out to me every year that catches me by surprise and teaches or reminds me something new about how I live my life.
My grandpa is in his 80’s and not doing too well these days. He’s in a nursing home and has a hard time being there, but is learning it’s a good fit for him right now. He was a pastor in the Nazarene Church for many years, but he lived a fair distance from us and we didn’t get to spend a lot of time with him.
As you may do in your family, we draw names to see who buys a gift for someone in the family and this year my older brother got my dad’s name. My brother is living his musical dream in Nashville these days and while he may struggle financially, he loves living in his passion, and for him, it’s music through and through.
When it came time for my dad to open the gift from my brother, my brother handed my dad a CD. On the cover my dad probably assumed it was some new music my brother had been working on, but my brother told my dad to read the back.
As my dad flipped it over, he was blown away by what he discovered. A few years ago when I my brother was touring in the Northwest, he stopped by my grandparents house, brewed a pot of coffee, and spent 2 hours recording a conversation with my grandpa about life, ministry, how he met my grandma, his time on Normandy Beach in WWII, etc.
As you may expect my dad was overcome with emotion. My brother got to see his work completed in my dad receiving the gift. Then I said something to lighten the mood as many of us do when we get uncomfortable and briefly ruined a great moment for our family.
While there may be many things to draw from a story like this, here’s what I took from it: What my brother offered to my dad was more than a gift. It was information to sustain my dad on the memory of my grandpa. It was a lot time invested on purpose so that another might be blessed by that time.
As I look back on that moment, it got me thinking about being home and the people in my life where more time may be needed to help sustain them in their everyday lives.
The tragedy for many of us is we wish discipleship could be packaged in our time limits and our clock. The tendency is to go strong for awhile and then fade away as change doesn’t happen the way we think it should. Time is crucial in the process of faith and it means we may need to sacrifice things we see as important to spend time with people that need the gift of presence.
As I’ve looked back and you look forward, it’s my hope that we could be a community that will take the necessary time to be present with people that Jesus himself says deserves the Kingdom as much as we feel we do.
I was just about to shed a tear as I read your post, when I read about you lightening the mood and I had to chuckle. You are great! Neat story!
Posted by: Amanda | 01/12/2011 at 02:52 PM