Today was book-ended (like that word?) between a great start and a great ending. I woke up early, as usual, but gave in to my feelings, rolled back over, and covered my head with my pillow. Just as I got really comfy, a sweet friend sent a text to see if I'd be visiting her church again this morning. Believing that God sometimes whispers subtle messages to us through other people, I jumped up, got ready in record time, and walked into the service at Northstar 20 minutes late. I managed to miss all of the music but arrived just in time for the message. And I'm so glad I did. I felt like God sent the message just to me. The sermon was from a single verse - 1 Samuel 16:1: "The Lord said to Samuel, 'How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king'."
The question asked us was "How long will you mourn over what God has rejected in your life?" A sub-question was "how long will you mourn over a lost relationship?" I find myself still doing that from time to time after nearly three years...not so much mourning actually...but feeling guilty that my children are children of divorce due to no fault of their own.
But, as the pastor pointed out, God left us with a remedy. The second part of that verse says "fill your horn with oil and be on your way." The remedy for us today is to "fill up [with God] and move on." And so, again, I claim one of my very favorite passages: "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland." (Isaiah 43:18-19). And, again, I remind myself that, once we confess and repent, God moves on and wants us to move on too. Though he is omniscient, he chooses to actually forget our mistakes. "I, even I , am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more." (Isaiah 43:25). Now that's pretty awesome news!
The ending was having Sunday dinner with my children at Old Venice - - something we've started doing each Sunday evening, and I love it. It's so hard to get 3 teenagers (well, 2 teenagers and an almost teenager) to all sit down at the same time to share a meal...so busy...but it's something we've started doing, and I honestly look forward to it all week. It's the one evening that nobody is allowed to make other plans. It's the one evening that all are expected to attend. It's only an hour or so but, for that hour or so, I have my babies all to myself. And it's always good. We laugh, talk non-stop about everything and nothing at all, and do a whole lot of reminiscing.
Tonight I was telling the kids about the Nutcracker performance I had seen yesterday. I told them that it reminded me of the Nutcracker number from the Rockette's Radio City Christmas Spectacular. We all began to laugh and talk about that, remembering all of the years that, as a family, we would travel to Nashville, spend the night in the Opryland Hotel, shop at Opryland Mills, take the riverboat ride inside the hotel (big hotel!), attend the Rockette's Radio City Christmas Spectacular at the Grand Ole Opry House, and go through the magnificent ice sculpture exhibit that even has slides made of ice that you can slide down (after bundling up in a parka of course). The kids were clearly recalling those memories with affection and fondness. It did my heart good to see that it had mattered. That my feeble attempts to build memories with my children had worked. Anyway, before we left Old Venice, we established that the kids would really like to stay at the Opryland Hotel and see the Christmas Spectacular again this year, that they all have this next weekend available or, rather, could have this next weekend available (Rick had to offer to change plans), and that I would get on-line to search for tickets as soon as we got home.
To my delight, I was able to secure both a reservation for the night at the Opryland Hotel and tickets for a Rockette performance. I'm so excited! I feel just like a kid in a candy store. My kids may not have thought about it, but I calculated some pretty significant one-on-one time I'll get with them: 4 hours in the car on the way to Nashville, a night in 1 hotel room altogether, a couple of hours at the Rockettes show, and another 4 hours in the car to return home. Oh how I pray God will bless our time together!
Finally, I should share with you one special thing about the Rockette's Radio City Christmas Spectacular. For the most part, it is a very secular performance all about the joys and magic of Christmas - - in fact, each of the performances we've attended opened with a singing/dancing number to "We Need a Little Christmas." And there are scenes about all things Christmas - - shopping, baking, sleigh rides, Santa, etc. - - But surprisingly, the show ends with a very emotional and spiritual highlight. The last number features a live nativity. Special effects and pageantry include live camels and sheep, lavishly costumed wise men, a beautiful manger scene, and a dramatization of the birth of Christ. A very touching narration entitled "One Solitary Life," all about Our Savior, is read during the processional of the wise men to find the Christ child, and the show closes with "Joy to the World." There's no way I can describe to you how spectacular the number is - how dramatic - how climactic. And, I'm just betting, there's no way you can sit through it without shedding a few tears and without being totally affected by the performance.
Anyway, an awesome day, book end to book end!
