Coming home for Christmas

I've been thinking how it used to feel when I lived a long distance away from my parents and I would come home for Christmas.  There would be such a feeling of anticipation and as the car or the airplane, whatever the mode of transportation was, got closer to the destination, the anticipation grew till finally I walked in the door and was home again!  It was always such a good feeling.  A feeling of safety and security.  And even though the word "love" was never mentioned, the feeling of love was there. 

After my Mom died in January of 1972, I could no longer go "home".  Home didn't exist.  And when my Dad died almost twenty years later (two days after Christmas in 1991) I realized that I was the "older generation" now.  So now I am the "home" that family comes to. 

I am blessed because my daughter and her family live in this state; it's about a 45 minute drive from where we live so we are able to see each other quite often.  And Paul's children all lived in this state till this summer when Darold and Cathy moved to another state.  But last week, they came home - and it was so good to see them again.  They were here Friday evening and we enjoyed visiting over dinner and then played a new table game I had recently bought.  Yesterday eleven of us met for lunch at the Cracker Barrel restaurant; we enjoyed good food and lots of conversation and laughter.  Tomorrow evening all of Paul's children will be here; we'll first attend the Christmas Eve service in our church, and then we'll all be back at our house for oyster stew and other goodies, although for me - oyster stew isn't a "goodie".  Our Christmas Day dinner and gift exchange will be at my daughter's house and everyone will be there except one granddaughter and her family from out of town, but we did get to see them yesterday.  Nine-month old Avery is the newest great-grandchild in the family; her older sister Rachel is 3 1/2, and then Joey and Carly are 6 and 7, so it will be a lot of fun watching the children open their gifts.  We all used to draw names for gifts, but it became hard to buy for each other because we all have everything we need, so now we just give gifts to the children. 

There were many years in my life when I was very lonely, when my daughter and I were alone, and later after she left for college and marriage - I would often be alone and lonely.  This was especially true at holiday time because my friends would all be with their families.  But one year, I think it was in the early 1980's, God gave me a special promise, it was the verse found in Psalms 68:6 "He sets the lonely in families".  Those of you who have received a special promise from God know what I'm talking about.  You know that you know it's a special promise!  But time went on and my circumstances really didn't get better and I would think of that verse and wonder if it was all my imagination -- but it wasn't -- I knew it was a promise. 

And God kept that promise.  He set me in a loving family; on Christmas day there will be 18 of us, enjoying each other's company.  He also set me in a larger non-related family; I now have a wonderful group of friends that are as close as family, and then I have the special "family" of the ladies in my Sunday School class at church.

All I can think of is "Praise God from whom all blessings flow!"