Christmas is over at last!

Well, last night we went out with our son Jonathan and his wife Audrey and their three kids, Sabastian, Rebeka and Nadia. After dinner at Pizza Inn (well, we were paying and let's face it, that's a lot of kids) they came over and the kids opened their Christmas presents. Just in time to plan for Sabastian's birthday on January 10th.

The kids seem to like the presents. If you're wondering about having never heard of them before, we don't get to see them too often. Jon is the oldest of my kids and when his mom and I got divorced it hit him fairly hard. And let's face it, his mom doesn't have a lot of nice things to say about me. Jon at least is up front about things. He'll at least come out and tell you that he doesn't like me very much. My middle child (Alison) doesn't talk to me much and says she doesn't have a problem. My youngest child (Abby) didn't talk to me for a couple of years but says she never had a problem with me, but Alison and her mother did. Oh well, the kids like me, well, Bas and Beka does. Actually Nadia would scream any time I got near her, but last night she was crawling all over me. I have pictorial proof!

Here's Beka on top of me and Nadia climbing up in my lap. I think Beka was trying to break my neck here.













And here's Nadia giving her grandpa Wayne a hug. No I'm not really holding on to her to keep her from running away!













And here's Bas and the back of his dad's head. He is of course, too mature to climb all over his grandpa, being 12 years old on the tenth.








So Christmas is finally over. Kathy and I have gotten everything for everybody until next year. Maybe next year we can make Christmas last only a few weeks instead of a few months.

Well, Susan made a comment on my last post saying that she will sell my house and make me move. Hah, fat chance! I told you what it would take to make me move. Get me my house (you know which one) for about 20 grand and we'll talk. Why yes, the sky is a nice, rosy pink in my world.

I've been thinking lately. I have discovered the problem with the church. Usually I just pick on the Baptists cause I know them. I was raised a Baptist and have spent most of my life in the Baptist church. We Baptists have a lot of problems, but I think I have discovered one with the entire corporate church. We've given up the miracle business! We've given up prophecy. Prophecy in the Biblical definition, telling the truth. Let's leave the soothsayers out of it. But if any of them are willing to work under the Old Testament test for prophecy I would be perfectly willing to believe in them!

Maybe it isn't just the church. Maybe it is the world. Elijah listened when God spoke to him and he spread the word to others. Today he would be tossed in an insane asylum as soon as he opened his mouth, (let's not even contemplate the dung fire and lying on one side) we wouldn't want to listen to him (well, neither did Israel, but that's another problem). Anyway, Paul listened to Jesus and stopped persecuting the church. And the church forgave him! Would we have the same sense of forgiveness? Would we believe the miracle?

A few years ago, Kathy and I were going to a large church on the northwest side and one of the girls of college age wanted to do an experiment where people prayed for germs. Ok, it may be weird, but she set up this experiment because her professor was a non-believer and she wanted to give him a reason to believe. Well, the poor child had a heck of a time finding 20 people to put the germs on their prayer list. My favorite excuse was that God didn't care about germs. I think the problem was that we have stopped believing in miracles. "What if God doesn't answer our prayer?" By the way, he did. The germs in the petri dish that got prayed for; notice I said prayed for, not prayed over, as far as I know nobody that was praying for the germs (the girl removed herself so there couldn't be a conflict) ever even saw the petri dishes until the experiment was over; those germs grew more than 85 % faster. The professor still didn't believe. He said that the germs picked up vibes from her and knew she wanted them to grow faster. Well, my problem isn't with the professor. My problem is with the church. There were still people in the church that were unable to see that maybe God doesn't care about germs, but He cares enough about us that He'll even answer our stupid prayers. And yes, I don't think that was a particularly holy use of prayer time, but it proved to the girl that there were people who cared enough about her to pray for her experiment, and it proved to her and some others that God cares enough to listen.

Look for a miracle. Stop thinking that miracles are things of the past. Stop thinking that God doesn't do miracles anymore. And before you think I'm talking about things from TV or something remember that miracles may not be flashy or big. Jesus used mud that he made from his own spit. And would we be willing to accept that miracle? See the miracle in every butterfly. See the miracle in every smile from a child. See the miracle in the healing that God can do, go ahead and go to the doctor, but don't expect that to be the only medicine you need.

Look for the miracles that God has put into your life. And thank Him for them.

God bless you all.

Wayne