MAKING A LIST By Lakan Mariano I’ll make a list of God’s gracious dealings, all the things God has done that need praising, all the generous bounties of God, His great goodness...—compassion lavished, love extravagant. Isaiah 63:7, MSG Many say the first Christmas after the loss of a loved one is hard. In many ways that is true. Kim always took such joy in personally picking out presents that mean something to the recipient. Christmas music provided rhyme and rhythm to the whizzing and whirring in the joyful hustle and bustle in the kitchen as the smell of baked goods wafted through the entire house. Her joyful exuberance greeted everyone who walked through our doors. Kim knew no strangers. Christmas morning was always greeted with oven-warm sausage balls and homemade pigs-in-a-blanket with a steaming cup of coffee. Then the kids would finally get up and pile into the living room still clad in their pajamas for us to open presents. Kim loved variety so instead of having turkey again after Thanksgiving we would normally have ham and all the diet-blowing goodies she prepared to go with it. Thirty four years of wonderful and blessed years. Not just on Christmas day but everyday of our life together. In the good and the bad, in the ups and the downs. We walked and lived and enjoyed life together. Yes, the first Christmas without Kim is hard. But I do not know how it is any harder than any other day. For our lives were so intricately woven together that there is not any day when I do not miss Kim. The depth of the grief I feel is proportionate to the depth of the love we shared. The man who finds a wife finds a treasure, and he receives favor from the Lord (Proverbs 18:22). Kim was, and is, a treasure, and I am the richest of men and greatly favored of the Lord for having Kim as my wife. Kim and I are blessed with our children and their spouses who love and walk with our Lord. Since Kims death we doubled the size of our brood with the arrival of Adree, Nehemiah, and Hayes. Death does not negate nor diminish the life we have in Christ. Nor does it tarnish the blessings we enjoyed together. For the grave no longer has the final say. Christmas joyfully heralds for us that the Promise was fulfilled. God became man to do for us what sinful man can never do: For God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus. The sovereign creator God clothed in our humanity. Who died for my sins and my rebellion. He is the One who defines my family and me and He is the lens through which we see all of life, even dath. And so, I’ll make a list of God’s gracious dealings, all the things God has done that need praising, all the generous bounties of God, His great goodness...—compassion lavished, love extravagant. Because of Christ we can have a very merry Christmas! Yes! Yes! Yes!
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 13:12:57 +0000
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