TGIF
Cindy and I flew to DC the Tuesday before Thanksgiving to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with our nuclear family – our 2 children, their wonderful spouses, and our 4 beautiful granddaughters. Our “week of Thanksgiving” with our family was truly blessed in every way. We had such great food – I had 5 turkey legs that week counting the 3 I had from our Covenant Thanksgiving dinner before we left on our trip (2 at church and one for Monday lunch) and two at Shelli’s home, so it was automatically a great week for me!!! But the time and experiences with our family, especially when both our children’s families were together watching the 4 girls playing together, was what made the week so very special. Cindy and I were so grateful for this family time together, and I thanked God many times for this opportunity and blessed family time together.
Then this past Monday Cindy and I drove up to PA, where we both grew up, to see my sister Sandy and her husband, Cindy’s Aunt Thelma, and additional close relatives. We had just done this a few months ago in September, but until that visit, it had been 2 years since we had seen any of them due to COVID. Our September visit was so blessed that I felt I needed it again, so we went. It was another great 3 days in PA, just reminiscing again with dear family, joking around, eating way too much good food (best cheesesteak sandwiches in America !), and seemingly going in circles to see and do as much as we possibly could the days we were there. It was wonderful seeing family again including some folks we missed on our September trip, we made great new memories, and God truly blessed our time with family and our travel to PA and back to DC. We were so grateful for this special time, and I have thanked God repeatedly for this experience.
This weekend we will now focus on our family Christmas with Shelli and her family since we will not see them at Christmas time. We have a lot planned, it will be a busy time and the unplanned that pops up may create the best of the times! So we are excited and grateful as we look forward to this weekend, and I have thanked God repeatedly for this coming weekend. Then we will return home next Tuesday and take a week to recover from all the activities!!
Surrounding all these activities that I have just told you about was another event occurring in parallel. Cindy and I learned a new phrase shortly after we got here last week that we had never heard before, it was “omicron variant”. Yes, the latest COVID variant has been detected and it is now dominating much of the news in our world. The news discussion is now focused on what new protocols might be imposed on us for requiring vaccinations and booster shots, what mandates might be required for travel and masks and indoor gatherings and keeping your jobs, and – MIGHT CHRISTMAS HAVE TO BE PUT ON HOLD FOR THIS YEAR!!!! Remember that it was just a few months ago when we were introduced to the “delta variant”, and we went through this same process of worrying and wondering – and somehow most of us managed to get through that time pretty nicely.
So I have chosen to ignore the omicron variant wile I am on this trip. It will still be there when we get home next week, and I am not going to let that negate the great joy that Cindy and I are experiencing on this trip with worry and concern for the “what might be coming soon…”.
In her November 30 devotional just this past Tuesday, Sarah Young writes what Jesus is saying to us – Joy is a choice – one that you face many times each day as long as you live in this world. When you graduate to heaven, indescribably glorious Joy will be yours – effortlessly. You won’t have to exert your will to be joyful. It will come naturally and be constant.
Habakkuk 3:18 – Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.
Sarah and Jesus continue – While you journey through this fallen world, I want to help you make increasingly wise choices. You need to become aware – and stay aware – that you can choose to be positive and hopeful moment by moment. Make it your goal to find Joy in the midst of your day. If you notice that you’re experiencing discouragement, frustration, or other negative feelings, let those prickly emotions prod you into remembering Me. You can pray something like, “Jesus, I choose to be joyful because You are God My Savior and nothing can separate me from Your loving presence.”
Romans 8:38-39 – For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I had the choice when we arrived here 10 days ago to focus on my wonderful family and our love for each other and on the playful antics of my 4 granddaughters or to focus on just the latest chapter of our ongoing COVID drama. That was an easy choice for me because I know God has His plan for me, and that He is watching over me through this life on earth and through eternity.
Jeremiah 29:11 – For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
My choice now and always is to seek Him, to find comfort in Him, and to know that He is my answer today, tomorrow, and always.
Psalm 27:8 – When You said, “Seek My Face”, my heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.”