Well, there are no little whispers under our tree this year. In fact, with my surgery and recovery we opted to not have a tree and experience Christmas focusing on the most important element, the babe in the manger and the promises His birth brought to earth.
On Christmas morning, we won't even open packages. My husband and I stopped buying for each other year's ago. We could buy what we needed or wanted any day of the year, so why focus on Christmas presents? It hasn't changed our life together. We still have children and grandchildren, and now great-grands to buy for, and that's joy in itself. But this year as I focused on the babe and His mother Mary, I thought about her waiting. Waiting for the curious, the whisperers, the nosey, coming out of the wordwork to talk about her so-called predicament. The wait must have seemed interminable to Mary.
Although my predicament has not been like hers and my physical problems as serious as many others, since May I have suffered pain on standing, while sitting, and even lately while lying in my bed at night. The waiting for decisions, diagnoses, and finally a surgery date seemed never-ending. I am not a patient person. Ask my husband! But God has brought me through this with a teaching like none other I've received before. I learned that waiting is best to get to the right diagnosis and problem, to find the specific place that will alleviate the pain, and to find the right doctor to do the surgery. I can tell you that last night for the first time since May I stood in my kitchen and prepared our evening meal without once having to grab my mother-in-law's old kitchen stool or lean on the cabinet to alleviate the pain. Today I wrapped packages for our grandchildren and their little ones and stood for an hour in my sewing room doing it, and never realized until I sat down here that I wasn't hurting! Praise the Lord for so many gifts, but most of all for the teaching He has given me these last months and weeks and days. And that only begins my counting of one thousand gifts:
225. Blooms on the Christmas cactus!
226. David's miraculous recovery.
227. Good nurses and doctors last week in the hospital.
228. Successful surgery showing a much straighter spine!
229. Healing and recovery progressing well.
230. Lessons in patience along the way.
231. Messages from family and friends.
232. Preparations for Christmas with family.
233. Meals prepared by friends.
234. A loving husband who has cared for me every step of the way.
Have you started counting yet? It's an amazing experience! Won't you join us at Ann's place, A Holy Experience?
God is so good. So thankful to hear you are doing better physically. All good things come to those who wait! May He continue to strength you in your waiting seasons.
ReplyDeleteHi Barbie! Yes, God is so very good, and I want to thank you from the ottom of my heart for your prayers before and after surgery and now through recovery. I can fell their work taking hold in my body now! I love that phrase "your waiting seasons."
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