CONTENTMENT

                    A Nursing Home I pass often going by as the new helpers arrive for work.

                              Just me and a few tiny snow flakes falling quietly in the darkness.
 Enjoying all the Christmas decorations as I go on my walk. Feeling it is great to be alive!

  Finding contentment even in small adversities. can be a challenge.  Trusting the Good Lord to give us wisdom and strength one day at a time. We have a small tree in our yard that grows crooked  at the top.  Reminds me of the bonsai tree which reminds me that life sometimes bends and shapes us by adversity.  There is an elegance in the twisted shape and I am reminded of those around me who are going through "troubled waters" with grace and compassion and kindness.

I now am putting out the manger scene which is such a different place than all the happy figures on the lawns around us.  As I look at Mary and think about the way the story is told in scripture I wonder how well the writer knew this young girl soon to be a mother.  I think she must have been very strong to be able to answer yes, to be willing to risk her reputation and her fiance and the honor of her family and take on this role.

When she gives birth I am sure she is like any other new mother exhausted and weak and looking at this new babe wondering how she will be able to care for him.  This child who will speak for God has arrived into a messy world of imperfection, pain and confusion.  What can this Mary teach me?  To be courageous and trusting and faithful in accepting hardship and the unexpected. 

This God meets us where we are and goes through the painful process of rebirth there will come contentment.

"The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness--
on them light has shined."    Isaiah: 9

Dad did not feel up to going to church and it was too cold and windy even for a short walk.
 He was enjoying the golf.  He was content!