"If it were not for the darkness, we would not see the light."
Jesus came as that one little light in the world that was so very dark. It was filled with our mistakes, our failures, our dark hearts, and it was longing for a Savior.
Jesus is the reason. He is the light. He has come and He has changed mankind forever.
5 years ago, we were so very sad. It was to be our last Christmas with Mom. She came from the hospital that day, to be with her family. She sat in her recliner and just observed.....kids, grandkids, great grandkids, eating, singing, talking, laughing...Imagine all that she had begun. She gave birth to 9 of the most amazing people I know. I love my brothers and sisters so much. We all have such busy lives and it is so difficult to all be at the same place at the same time. It was a tradition forever that we all met on Christmas Eve. After Mom left, it stopped feeling like Christmas. Dad had passed away many years earlier and Mom kept the tradition alive. We knew we would be together on Christmas Eve, and most of us made that happen. As our families have grown and kids have gotten married and have their own extended families, the tradition became more difficult to uphold. We have tried to have "Christmas" at New Years, sometime earlier than December 24th, sometime later, but we kept trying. It really has been a tragic loss of tradition.
My sister, Ginny, "the peacemaker", and I were in discussion one night and we both talked about how we have been"missing Christmas". It has not been the same without our parents, but at least we had our tradition. She said the most amazing thing......."Mom died, Christmas did not"!
We love this picture of Mom. It was taken the year before she passed away. At school the other day, one of my students asked about this picture. "Who is that?"
My reply was, "OH, you don't know about my mom?" I thought I had talked about her so much that EVERYONE should know her. This new group of students did not know the Mom stories. That made me sad.
I told them how she was an artist, like me, and that when she was very ill, she began giving her things away. She would tell me to take her blue jeans to a woman who made quilts and rugs from denim. She told me to take her fleece to another woman who made blankets for babies in other countries. She told me to take her clothes to the women's and children's shelter in Sioux Falls. She knew about mothers with children and how hard times made it difficult to clothe them, and she knew, sorry to say, about women who did not have the financial support they needed to survive. She gave her shoes to the children in other countries through a shoe drive at the school. She had seen children on TV without shoes! She had me "regift" all of her unopened gifts to friends and family. She was so giving!
In her legal will, it was stated, "give all of my art and craft materials to Carol and her students at West Lyon School". I hauled boxes and boxes of craft materials. It has been 5 years, and many students have benefited from these supplies, and many more people have been the recipient of handmade gifts made with her supplies.
For these new students, who did not know my Mom stories, I took out what is left of the wooden cutouts and we had a painting party today! It made me so incredibly happy to share this with them! They loved it and so did I!!!
Mom died, Christmas did not!
Mom loved these little country cut outs! She had samples and pattern pieces neatly packed in separate shoe boxes. We are down to the last 3 boxes now, and still enjoying her gift.
Students painting up some JOY!!!!
Each students chose several cut outs to paint!
Painting made them so happy!
Nikki was serious about her work!
I know I deviated from the original idea for this post, but I have been know to do that, OFTEN!
The real reason for this is "The Light" See it! Live it! Enjoy it! Know the reason for it!
Christmas lives on....Thanking God for His Light!!
