It's been a while since I have submitted anything. December is a wonderful month, but it is also extremely busy. I thought about a number of things and even wrote out a lengthy blog that I intended to post. After sleeping on it, I decided not to (too much personal info). I have, however, come to think about Christmas a bit differently this year because my recent musings. In short, I concentrated more on receiving this Christmas. I know that sounds terrible because Christmas is supposed to be about giving. But for me the "giving" theme quickly becomes not about what God gave us but about what we give others. Don't get me wrong, I love giving gifts at Christmas; but at least for me the emphasis on giving was the very thing that deflected my mind away from what I had received in the coming of Christ.

"Joy to the world,
The Lord has come,
Let earth receive her king".

Now, on a completely different note. . . .

They say in the Mid-West that if you don't like the weather, just wait a while. Yesterday in Springfield it was 71 degrees, today they say we may have snow. The change in weather brought very severe storms all last night. Tornado warning sirens were going off all until 3:30 AM. We do not have a basement in our house, so when the siren sounds the whole family goes into a little interior closet to sit until the storm passes. We did that several times last night. For a few minutes we had golf ball size hail. It was louder than I thought it would be. My Honda Civic has about 20 nice divots in the hood and top. I can't complain; Strafford, MO, just a couple miles away from us, was hit very hard with at least one fatality. I grew up in Oregon. We didn't have tornadoes!

I have to admit; I get a bit scared when we have weather like this. It reminds me of the feelings I got after earthquakes in Southern California. I struggle with knowing how much fear of events like this is healthy. I try not to overreact; I try to keep my head, but inside I don't like it at all. Occasionally after earthquakes I would run into someone who said that they weren't the least bit bothered by it. I have very little time for people who have no fear. Maybe it's because deep down I wish I could be as "brave." Some of those "brave" souls even implied that I didn’t trust God like they did. I think I trust God; it's the weather I don't trust! So with a little healthy fear I'm making it a New Years resolution to step up the effort to find a house with a basement and garage.