Memory is a wonderful thing. We can thank God for those amazing brain cells.
From 1948 I remember red and yellow (or orange) Lionel Train boxes each carefully wrapped in colorful Christmas wrap, without scotch tape. There was a black steam engine that puffed smoke, black coal tender with a whistle, silver tank car, orange box car, a red dumping coal car, and of course the red caboose. And then some track. Track was the key element to this train system. Being able to change the layout provided many possibilities and made this toy something to think about and work with for years. Yes, I did expand it and now have several trains and a lot more track and switches. Does anyone else have a Lionel train? Maybe we could play trains in the Social Hall.
About 1972 we had a catastrophic event with our Christmas tree. One morning there was a large amount of crying coming from the living room. We rushed out to see that young James while investigating the tree and what was under it pulled the tree down on top of himself. When we got to the living room, there was the tree lying down and James standing up in the middle of it. Quite a sight. This never happened again, not even with second son, John, since I’m sure James was careful to warn him about the possibility. Later we discovered that James was allergic to pine trees and we got an artificial one. In 2006 on the 14th day of Christmas (Jam 8th) first grandchild, Alexander, was born. Yes, I know, we traditionally only celebrate 12 days of Christmas so we are stretching it a bit. What a wonderful Christmas present from son, James, and his wife Erika Chuang. Blending our family with the Taiwanese Chuang family has been an interesting journey. James, Erika, Alexander, and Adelaide, all will be going to Taiwan for Christmas this year.
We always enjoy Bethany’s Christmas Eve service. For years, one of the highlights for the year for our Mariner fellowship group would be to go out Caroling to sing to and with our shut-ins or folks at retirement centers. Sometimes this got exciting or frustrating if we got temporarily lost trying to find addresses in the dark. Now we have GPS in our phones. Hooray.
We are grateful for Jesus and his role in God’s Kingdom to remind us of God’s Ways and to be our savior. Thanks be to God.
—Jim Davis
