Good Friday morning! Does it feel cold this morning? It should, we have a 6° day outside with a balmy wind chill of -11°. Winter has arrived and it does not care what the calendar says! Mornings like this remind us of our gratitude to God for providing warm houses and faithful furnaces, without which we might be tearing down the neighbor's wooden fence to throw on the bonfire. Warm coffee doesn't hurt either, and warm oatmeal and warm socks and... do we have a theme going here? Praise the Lord for the warm house! Alas, my neighbor has a PVC fence, probably not good to burn that. :-)
Pastor Schuller asked if we have joyful expectation today. I remember that feeling best by what I felt as a child at Christmas time. Joyful expectation brings us the expectation of good things in our future. As a child and thinking like a child, we tended to associate the joy of Christmas with what we received as gifts. As an adult, we come to realize that the joy of Christ is in the gift He gave to us at the cross. We also learn the joy of giving. Children benefit directly from that joy, as do our friends and loved ones. What happens when things get tough? Many people are out of work this Christmas. Some have been out of work for quite some time as I am sure that Cabela's was not the first to have layoffs due to the recession. I pray that this Christmas will bring us a renewed hope.
It seems that we have now been in a recession for a little over a year, or so the experts claim. I don't think that will come as a surprise to anyone; we have been feeling the effects for perhaps a bit longer than that. Actually, if the experts are correct, then my 401K balance is an accurate economic barometer. It was about a year ago that the decline began and the balance sits at about half of what it was last Thanksgiving. Like the news, our retirement funds may not be fun to look at right about now. How many times must we say it? Trust in God!
A very cold and merry Christmas to you!
Bucky
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