What you do in your house is worth as much as if you did it up in heaven for our Lord God. We should accustom ourselves to think of our position and work as sacred and well-pleasing to God, not on account of the position and work, but on account of the word and faith from which the obedience and the work flow. ~ Martin Luther

Friday, December 18, 2009

Imagine.......

Imagine a brother and sister in law who cut down a tree from their own land, drove it 30 miles and plunked it in your yard with a "Ho Ho Ho~MEERRRRYYY Christmas!!"

Imagine stringing the tree with colored lights just to restring it with white lights because...there is something so pure about lights like stars. Or THE star. A living room filled up with twinkling declarations of His coming.

Imagine the cd player not working properly, so Papa singing out Christmas carols instead. Imagine little voices and BIG voices joining in whenever they knew the words (and even when they didn't.)



Imagine
cups of cold, homemade eggnog courtesy of the chickens that morning with freshly whipped cream and a sprinkling of nutmeg.

Imagine
whipped cream lips.

Imagine
dancing with angels.

Imagine eating a very-favorite meal (sausage gravy~the children's favorite) over freshly toasted, homemade cracked wheat bread. Using wheat you cracked yourself.

Imagine eating said meal in the LIVING room (never done that before!) all around the Christmas tree.

Imagine "You a good Mama and a weally good cooker." coming from a little boychild right into your heart.

Imagine gazing at your love, in candlelight, across the room-and still seeing the twinkles in his eyes.

Imagine snowflakes falling on your tree as big as your head.


Imagine laying out the tree skirt and fondly recollecting the determination to finish making it the day before Christmas, that first Newman Christmas, yearning to have that skirt grace all of our Christmases in the future. Pining for a tradition to begin.

Imagine laying it out and thanking God that it has seen 7 Christmases, all very different from one another but all incredibly dear.

Imagine strands of popcorn and cranberries, as elegant as pearls and rubies, draped across the boughs.

Imagine so many lights it seems to be daylight even in the black darkness of midnight.

Imagine a tree so tall the angel has no room for a Halo.

Imagine
a tree nearly 8 feet wide at the base, swallowing up a once-spacious living room and radiating because of it.

Imagine
the stories told as old ornaments are carefully unwrapped. One from my 1st grade teacher. 1st Christmas feet prints from all my babies. A "First Christmas Together" locket ornament that STILL, seven years later, holds the generic photos of strangers.

Imagine the awe of it all.

And then, realize that you never were imagining at all.

17 comments:

Bonnie said...

Imagining I am there, which is quite easy with all the beautiful pictures!

Bonnie said...

P.S. You could just say the strangers in the locket are some distant relatives. I mean really, after 7 years they practically are ;0D

Peggy said...

I can even smell it!! How truly beautiful, not just the tree itself but the memories made in the process.

Umm, could I get your recipe for homemade eggnog? Does it use real rum? I have to stay away from the stuff but could use extract instead or maybe vanilla?

Wishing you a very, very Merry Christmas!

(just so you know cards are going out late this year... they will be more like Epiphany cards, hee hee!)

Unknown said...

This is such a lovely post!

Merry Christmas to you and yours =)

Anonymous said...

Just Lovely, Reminds me of Christmases Past.

Riahli said...

Absolutely beautiful.

Kelli said...

This is my very favorite Christmas post! So beautiful. Your tree looks like one Tasha Tudor would have...perfect!
~Kelli

rain said...

So so so so beautiful!!! Thanks to your photos and verbal imagery I do not have to imagine ~ I feel as though I am there. Merry Christmas!

Anne@BackyardTreasures said...

To echo the thoughts of the others....this is truly a beautiful post. Simply beautiful, Rebecca.

~~Anne
www.backyardtreasures.wordpress.com

Quinne said...

Lovely, Rebecca!
Thanks for including us :)
Love & hugs, Q

Alyssa Spring Corley said...

Beautiful.

Unknown said...

How beautiful...you write and explain your feelings so well! :)

Blessings, Rebecca!
Amy

Anonymous said...

I can imagine. :D

Ditto to what Amy said.

Blessings,
Jillian

Rosemary said...

Your post was beautiful; both the words and the photos. I especially love the dancing with the angel photo. If I were an artist, I would paint that scene.

Father's Grace Ministries said...

So beautiful in words and pictures! We can all imagine we are there with you.

Thankyou for sharing these precious Christmas moments.

Claire

Wendy said...

Merry Christmas to the Newmans! Love the sparkly lights and gigunda tree!

Kim said...

Beautiful post Rebecca, love your tree. :-)