Jump for Joy!

Some years ago I was invited into the practice of selecting one word to use as a focal point for the next year.

The word selection was not to be just one I selected because I liked it or thought it catchy or encouraging,   It was to be a word God gave me.  It was to be His Personal Gift to me to carry with me through the year, an ever present reminder of His Presence.

It turned out to be an intriguing experience.  I learned early on I could not predict God.  My Word was sometimes for encouragement.  But it was also sometimes a Word to prod me back to the right path when I faltered.

The Word also led me to God’s other Words, Words recorded and passed down through the years to me and other.  Words that stood as Truth.  Words that gave Light.

As I prayed about my Word for 2026, The Word that came to mind was NOW.  I smiled.  And then I instantly realized how challenging that might be for me.

I am a person who enjoys reliving the best parts of my past.  Memories are a God given blessing.  But we are not created to perpetually live in the “good old days.”

We are also not created to be burdened by memories of “the bad old days.” If we even give them a passing thought, it should be to thank God for getting us through them and bringing us to better days.

I also am a planner.  I love organizing things and setting goals for the future.  I love the feeling of success when a goal is accomplished and I can already forecast where I am headed next.

My life for the past couple of years decidedly put a crimp in my five year planning.  And this past year has brought events that threw out the entire thought of any planning. 

I tried to embrace the thought of “this is the day The Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.”  But sometimes planning even the next minute was not possible.

So reluctantly I learned to live one moment at a time.  And I discovered there was beauty there.  There were things I might have missed if I had had the energy to busily be making lists and running from one activity to another.

David said in Psalm 23, “You make me lie down in green pastures.”  I always thought, “If the pastures were so green, why would God have to make David lie down?”

Maybe David needed a little reminding too.

So, as I begin 2026, God is reminding me He began His Lessons in 2025 by making me lie down.  

But for 2026, perhaps He wants to see, if I am given a little more freedom, if I will choose to use each moment wisely.

So I choose the word, NOW.  I felt The God Wink when He said, “NOW stands for No Other Way!” 😘

Living in the NOW already is giving me a different view.  Sometimes NOW means not postponing the good we can do at this time.  

When we are tired or distracted by life, we sometimes believe some things can wait for tomorrow.  But tomorrow the opportunity may be gone.  God calls us to follow Him NOW!

A friend once wrote of Life’s moments.  I also take his words with me this year.

Pat Conroy said,

“Time is a finger snap and an eye blink and you should not let a moment pass you by without taking joyous ecstatic note of it, not wasting a single moment!”

The Truth is this Word will be good for more than a year.  It has no limits … no expiration date … even in eternity!

2025 turned out to be a wild ride for us.  

We entered the Christmas season of 2024 on a high note.  We had just published our book, Christmas Rediscovered.  

But before the year ended, I had an eye crisis.  My left  eye was partially removed in December 2024.

I began 2025 trying to adjust to the “new normal” of vision.  I had begun writing another book prior to the eye crisis.  God said to continue.  So with my “new normal,” I wrote.

Then in the depths of a Kentucky winter, Jay got the flu.  He was very ill for weeks.  Then I got the flu.  Jay and I communicated with barks for awhile.

But I kept writing and even while battling the flu, Jay took care of editing and all the myriad of other things that go into book publication.

On March 25,2025, Sent From Heaven was published.  It was our true miracle book!

The cold winter turned into a beautiful Kentucky spring.  We were once again on a high note.  Both books were (and are) available for purchase through Amazon.

Besides that, we put the audio versions on my blog site.  You can click on the title of the book at the top of the home page and I will be happy to tell you the story!

Then came summer.  Jay developed a spontaneous nosebleed, which required emergency room intervention to get it stopped.

A week later what started as neck pain for me turned out to be the beginning of a new crisis.

Basically my neck bones were putting pressure on my spinal cord.  The pressure caused a variety of neurological symptoms.

In July,  I had neck surgery to relieve the cervical spine compression.  The positive results were worth the pain and agony that followed, but still recovery was long and brutal.

I am happy to report I have made steady progress.  I am able to walk again, and even dance!  I can feel parts of my body I could not feel before surgery.  I can write again!

Beyond that, we were given so many other gifts throughout our adventures this year.  There were so many places where it looked like the end of the road … and then God miraculously intervened.

He brought kind, compassionate people into our life.  We might never have met them except through the circumstances we were in.

We had the opportunity to pray for others and receive the blessings of prayers from others.

We were able to give books as gifts.  God provided the books as “loaves and fishes” before we needed them.  Our books have gone places we never imagined they would go.

Our family and friends from near and far  kept up the prayer supports and encouragement.

It has also been a time of testing.  We were faced with very difficult circumstances where we could not stand (literally and figuratively) on our own.  

Old and new fears threatened our peace.  We had to consider whether what we had professed as our faith in good times was really going to be true in unbelievably difficult times.

Jay taught me a Truth many years ago.  He said, “Maybe you should stop asking why things happen as they do, and just seek to know what God wants you to know now.”

So what did we learn on this roller coaster ride in 2025?

Wherever we are, in whatever circumstances, we are with God.  

God’s Timing is always perfect.  The challenging things did not all happen at the same time.

God does not go with us.  He does not follow us.  We go with Him.  We follow Him.  Wherever we go or stay is the mission field.

Our circumstances do not change God’s Presence, God’s Promises or God’s Plan.  

God has a Plan that is much bigger than us alone.  Sometimes God works through us to minister to others.  Sometimes God brings others into our life to minister to us.

God knows The Plan, but He does not always tell us the details.  He said His Ways are not our ways.  

We may not understand why things happen as they do, but we can trust God is going to bring everything together for good.

We will continue to do what Paul said we should do.

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer!

Romans 12:12

As we look toward 2026, we do so with profound gratitude for all our many blessings.  Happy New Year to all of you!

May The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by The Power of The Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13

Zachariah did not believe.  He was stopped from speaking unbelief.  When he agreed with God’s Word and confirmed his son’s name, he could speak again.

Elizabeth gave thanks God had removed what she felt was her shame in not being able to conceive.  God accepted her gratitude and forgave her pride.

Joseph listened quietly and obeyed, even when he was asked to do things that were far from his plans.

Mary questioned how God would do it, but she did not question God’s right to use her in any way He chose.  She submitted her whole self to God’s Perfect Will.

Mary said,

“I AM The Lord’s Servant.  May Your Word to me be fulfilled.” 

At that moment, God’s Name I AM became One with Mary, His Beloved.

 Heaven and earth joined. 

At that moment, The Word became flesh!

As we enter a season of new beginnings, reflect on what Words God is bringing to you.  

Can you say with Mary,

“I AM The Lord’s Servant.  May Your Word to me be fulfilled!”

With God, nothing will be impossible!

Luke 1:37

Do you have regular after Christmas activities?

When I was growing up, we all knew what we would be doing the day after Christmas. We would be writing thank you notes.

Not only was my mother very emphatic that we write them, she was also emphatic that we write them soon

after we received the gifts.

And she put in another wrinkle. She said we should say how we planned to use it.

Example: “Thank you for the new mixing bowl. You know I love to cook and I plan to bake a chocolate cake this afternoon, using my new mixing bowl.”

What if we thought of every gift God has given us and we said, “Thank You, God, for giving me _______. I look forward to using it in this way.”

Think of it. “Thank You, God, for our house. I plan to use it in this way.” 

“Thank You, God, for my vision … my

hearing … etc.  I plan to use it in this way.”

Have you ever received a gift you did not want or thought you could not use?  What could be the purpose in receiving a gift we can’t use?

Let’s take the example of a child receiving a shirt that is too big, but one that he can grow into and look forward

to wearing next year.

Sometimes God’s Gifts entice us to wait a little while to use them … to keep us reaching to the future.

What about the shirt that is too small? What could that teach us? Sometimes it is a gentle reminder we need to change something about ourselves to fit in that nice gift.  

Sometimes it is a reminder we have grown. Sometimes we start thinking we are not growing spiritually, and then something comes along that shows us we have grown from where we were last year or even last month.

Sometimes we are given gifts to give to others. I have received some gifts I never personally used, but I gave them as gifts to others, who really could use them.

God had provided two gifts. One was the gift that went to the person who really needed it. The other was God’s real Gift to me in getting the pleasure of being

His delivery girl and sharing in the joy of giving.

When you get a gift you think you will never use, stop a minute and ask God, “Would You like me to deliver this to someone else?”

What about the gift we can’t even identify? Everyone in our family still smiles at the memory of gifts from a

favorite relative, who never missed giving my parents a gift each Christmas.

The only problem was frequently, the gifts were so unique no one knew exactly what they were.  A weird shaped paperweight or a brass apple corer or

something none of us could ever identify.

Dutifully after Christmas, my mother would write the thank you letter. However, when you don’t know what

you have received, it is hard to know how to say thank you!

We laughed as we read her thank you notes, which sometimes sounded like this:

“Thank you for the interesting gift. You always put such thought into getting us the perfect gift. We certainly look forward to using it.” 

And of course, the part that she did not write … was “when we figure out what

it is.”

Sometimes we detect that God has given us gifts, but they were not quite what we expected. However, they often turn out to be wonderful gifts beyond our wildest imagination, once we figure out what they are.

Accept those gifts with gratitude, thank the Lord for them and wait for their purpose to be revealed.

I invite you to try my mother’s principles of writing thank you notes. Think of the gifts God has given you.

Thank Him right away. 

Identify each gift by name and tell Him how you plan to use it.

And if it’s some of those gifts you can’t quite identify yet, thank God that He knows the Plans He has for you and they are good plans.  Look forward to unwrapping those gifts a little bit at a time. 

“For I know the Plans I have for you,”

declares The Lord, “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, Plans to give you hope and a future.”

Jeremiah 29:11

Every good and perfect Gift is from above, coming down from The Father

of The Heavenly Lights, Who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:17

Give thanks to The Lord, for He is good;

His Love endures forever!

1st Chronicles 16:34

To listen to the audio of this post, follow the link.

Isaiah prophesied,

“Therefore The Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His Name Immanuel.”

Isaiah 7:14

Matthew added a very important detail.  He told us what Immanuel means.

Immanuel means “God with us” (Matthew 1:23)

Jesus has often been portrayed as a traveling companion, a roommate, a good friend, even a marriage partner.

Jesus has been presented as being separate from God.  He has been portrayed as being separate from us.  He has been portrayed as going away and coming back one day.

Jesus has been portrayed as someone we can invite in or dismiss when we choose.  His Presence has been presented as dependent on our performance … even a performance of our generating  enough faith to believe in Him.

But Jesus makes it clear He is not here to give a performance test.  He is here as a Gift!  And He makes it clear Who is giving The Gift.

Jesus said,

“I and The Father are One.”

John 10:30

Jesus and God are One!

But the news gets even better.  Jesus revealed The One is One with us.  He is God with us!

Jesus said,

“On that day you will realize that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you.”

John 14:20

Jesus said,

“The Kingdom of God is within you.”

Luke 17:21

How could we have something inside us and not know it? 

We had a heart inside us from the beginning, but we may not have known it.  Even as it was faithfully doing its job of keeping us alive, we did not know it was there.  

And then one day we did.  We learned something new.  We felt a pulse.  We heard a heartbeat.  We recognized we had a heart!

Our heart is only one of the many Gifts God has already given us.

His Greatest Gift is The Gift of Himself He put inside each one of us.  Immanuel means God is with us .. all of us.  We have had God with us from our beginning.  And He is never going to leave.  

Jesus said,

“Be sure of this.  I am with you always!”

Matthew 28:20

Look past the manger.  Look within.  

Feel your pulse.  Recognize Who is knocking on the door of your heart from within to remind you He is indeed with you always!  He always has been and will be forever!

Look again at the name, Jesus.  You may be surprised by another God wink.  

You are in Him and He is in you.

JesUs.

Now look again.  We, all of us, are in Him and He is in us!

JesUS!

I invite you to enjoy  this song and be thankful for the best Gift you will ever receive!  Merry Christmas!

It is almost Christmas!

And if you have somehow lost track of time, there are plenty of reminders that there are only a few days left.

Some greet the news with eager anticipation.  Some panic.  Some dread it.  Some are actually relieved that this season is almost over and their lives can get back to “normal.”

Where is Jesus in the midst of all this anticipation?  

Some seem to think He will make a grand entrance on Christmas, amid the joyful singing of Christmas carols.  

He could, but we need to remember He always had a knack for showing up at times and in places people least expected Him.

Certainly no one expected God to quietly come to earth through a virgin (although He had announced it through His Prophets long before).

No one thought His first bed would be a feeding trough for animals.

Mary and Joseph had plans for their future.  They never expected their life would include raising The Lord of The Universe.

The shepherds never expected they would receive a glorious invitation to welcome God, newly revealed in human skin.

Later, men who were having an ordinary work day fishing, never expected Jesus to drop in and totally change their life in a moment.

The woman at the well thought she understood everything there was to know about The Messiah Who would come one day.  But she did not know she was already in His Presence.

Zacchaeus was just curious about this itinerant preacher who was getting so much attention.  He had no idea that before the day was out, He would be having dinner at his own house with Jesus.

The teachers of the law knew the rules.  They defended their traditions with a vengeance.  They did not know they were in The Presence of The One Who came to transform their traditions into freedom … their vengeance into Love.

Even though His Disciples had witnessed Jesus doing many miracles, they did not expect to see Him walking toward them on the water.  They thought He was a ghost.

Mary Magdalene knew Jesus well.  She had heard Him foretell His Death and Resurrection.  But she did not recognize Him.  She thought He was the gardener.

Herod, Pilate and the men who crucified Jesus did not recognize Him.  They knew His Name.  But they did not know Him. 

Jesus said and did many important things. 

As you anticipate celebrating the day designated as Jesus’ Birthday, consider these.

Who do you say that I am?

Matthew 16:15

I am in you and you are in Me.

John 14:20

I am with you always.

Matthew 28:20

You will see Me.

John 16:16

Where do you see Jesus now?  

Start by looking in the mirror.  Then look around.  He is everywhere, waiting for you to discover Him.

You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart!

Jeremiah 29:11

 We pray The Lord’s Prayer and ask that God’s Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven.

We ask that His Will be done.

But we often live as if the way to establish God’s Kingdom is by getting rid of all those who will not fit in our kingdom.

We are not sure His Will is in our best interest.  We prefer He line up with our will.

We want to post the Ten Commandments, but can’t quote them without looking.  Even more concerning is we don’t obey them ourselves.  We just want to be sure everyone else does.

We love Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  We think it is nice He wants to bless people.  But we are waiting for Him to do it.  He is waiting for us to deliver His Blessings.

We like the sound of “blessed are the peacemakers.”  We would like people to make the world and our life more peaceful.

We don’t want to make peace for people who don’t make peace for us first.

We sing about Peace on earth, especially at Christmas.  We get a goose bump or two until the music stops and the lights go dark.

And we sit in the stillness thinking about Peace.  Is it really possible to have Peace on earth?

Yes.  

If we are all in to delivering Jesus’ kind of Peace, the kind that made Jesus a true Child of God.

You might think that is a task too big.  But we can begin now by receiving The Peace Jesus is here to give us.

Then when we have received it, we can share it with others.  Peace, Love and Joy come from The Fountain within that will never go dry.  The more we give, the more it flows through us.

I invite you to listen to this beautiful song by Casting Crowns.  The first time through, receive The Peace that is offered.

The second time, think of people who need Jesus’ Peace and pray it for them.

Peace on earth begins with us right where we are.

Would you give a gift you would like, but cannot enjoy yourself?

My father grew many crops in his garden.  Most of them were things he could not eat due to a medical condition.  

I asked him why he chose to do that.  He told me he enjoyed having something to give other people.  Their joy in receiving brought joy to him.

A friend had an advanced dental condition that restricted her diet to liquids.  Yet she spent a great deal of time baking foods she took to others.  Like my father, her joy came through the act of giving others joy.

We have enjoyed a magnificent Christmas Light Show this season.  It comes from the home of a man who is blind.  For many years, he has worked to send light and joy out into the world, even though he cannot see all of it.  Like my father and my friend, his joy comes through the joy others receive.

In this season of celebrating Jesus’ Birth, you may not be feeling joyful.  However, if you make a conscious choice to do what you can to bring joy to others, you will find that Joy Jesus promised springing up in you.

Jesus  came not for what He could get from us, but for what He could give us.  Receive it and pass it on!

I have told you these things so that My Joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy may be made full and complete and overflowing!

John 5:11 (AMP)

The Bible tells us Jesus was God, but He was also human in every way that counts.  God chose to live the full picture of being human.

And young Mary and Joseph were definitely human.

We often picture a nice Hallmark card  nativity scene.  Mary and Joseph have every hair in place.  Their clothes are clean.  They look happy and peaceful.

We buy into the Away In A Manger song that says, “The little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes.”  The Bible does not say that at all.  He likely cried like any other baby.

He needed his diapers changed.  He needed to be fed.  He needed to be burped.

Mary had just endured a journey while being close to time to deliver.  With a crowd of people headed for Bethlehem for the census, it is likely they made their journey in plenty of traffic.  Were they worried about whether they would get there before she delivered?

I wonder how many questions Mary and Joseph had to answer about the unusual pregnancy.  We never hear that side of the story.  Was there gossip?  Was there finger pointing and judgement?  Was there curiosity about how such a thing had happened?

And once they got to where they were going, how did Mary and Joseph feel about ending up with the animals?  Did they have any thoughts that a very pregnant woman deserved some better accommodations? 

But perhaps Mary and Joseph were so tired, they may have been grateful to bunk in with the animals away from the noise of prying people.

And what about the birth itself?  If everything went according to human scenarios, Mary had labor pains.  We don’t know for how long.  

If Jesus was not spared the pain of crucifixion, it is unlikely Mary would have been spared the pain of childbirth.

Did Joseph deliver Jesus?  Did an unnamed relative help?  Were the animals in the way?  Who cleaned up after the birth?

Even though it might shake up our picture perfect nativity scene, it is possible Jesus’ first cries were heard by his exhausted parents lying in uncomfortable, itchy hay with the smell of animal excrement in their nostrils.

Why even think of it this way?  

Because Jesus comes to us in our very real world of unexpected joys and sorrows.  He comes to us when life isn’t working like we planned.

He comes to us when our backs are against the wall and we don’t know what we are going to do next.

He comes to us in our pain, in our questioning of why we have to have pain.  He pushes on us and then gives us moments to rest.

He tears through our defenses and bursts into our world whether we are ready or not.

He comes to us in our exhaustion and in the middle of our messes.  He cries, He poops, He pees with us.  

But He also smiles, laughs and reaches out and touches our face, like we are the most special people in His World.

He doesn’t care whether we look picture perfect or not.  He sees us as we are and He loves us.  He has come to stay.

I wonder what Jesus was like as a toddler.  What was His First Word?  Do we maybe have no record of his toddler antics because Mary was too tired  to record anything  after running after Him all day?  (Toddler mothers will understand.)

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of the same things… He had to be made like His brothers in every respect.

Hebrews 2:14 and 16

Jesus came to be like us so He can reveal to us how much we are like Him! 

The first Christmas after my mother died, I helped my father with his Christmas cards.

My mother had always been the organized one, who kept the list up to date. Her death several months before Christmas had left many things up in the air.

I thought it would be a relatively simple task. However, we could not find my mother’s most current list. We worked from the previous year’s list. Right away we hit a snag.

Our conversation went like this.

Me: Let me read through the list and see if we’ve got everyone you want to send a card to. (I began to read the list. Several names down, he stopped me.) (Names changed in following scenario to protect the living and the dead)

Daddy: Wait! I think Jack’s dead.

Me: OK, I’ll take Jack off.

Daddy: But I’m not sure. He was pretty sick and I think he died. But he might have pulled through. If he didn’t die, he’d be upset if I didn’t send him a card.

Me: OK, I’ll put him back on.

Daddy: No wait, what if he did die?

Me: Then he won’t get the card.

Daddy: But then his family will know I didn’t know he was dead. I wonder if Pearl sent a sympathy card if he died. But then I really don’t know who died first … Pearl or Jack … if Jack died.

Me: Why don’t we send a card to Jack and his wife and just write a general note that could be taken as an expression of sympathy or season’s greetings? Just don’t ask him how he is!

Daddy: Yes, that sounds like a good idea. (He picked up his pen to write a note, than paused and looked puzzled.)

Daddy: Wait a minute. It’s coming back to me now. I think it was Jack’s wife, Ann, who was so sick. And I think she died.

Me: OK, then we should take Ann off, but leave Jack on.

Daddy: No, don’t do that yet, because I’m not sure. I shouldn’t send a card to Jack if he’s really the one who died.

(Daddy looked very sad at this point.)

Daddy: I sure wish your Mama hadn’t died. She would know who is dead and alive.

Me: She probably does, Daddy. I wish she was here too. But since, she isn’t, why don’t we just send cards to everyone on the list. Whoever is alive can know we still think of those who have been promoted, as still living.

Daddy seemed satisfied with that. We did get a few back with family explaining who had died and expressing sympathy to Daddy in the loss of my mother.

It was not only Christmas greetings shared that year, but it was also a shared grief. That in itself was comforting.

And Jack really appreciated the Christmas card, since he had just lost his wife, Ann.

It was much easier to help Daddy with his Christmas cards after that first year. 

Several years later, after Daddy died in November, he received Christmas cards from people who did not know.

As I wrote them back, I smiled at the precious memories. We all thought of Daddy as still alive. And we were right. He had just had a change of address!

Post Script 2025

Jay and I have had the same problem every year with our Christmas letter list.  Just today, we got our Christmas letter returned because a friend had died and we did not know.

Within a few minutes of our reviewing the mail, we got a phone call from a long ago friend who was delighted to have received our letter.  She is 101 years old, still lives independently and is planning the next social event at her home.

It still pays to send everyone seasons greetings, even if you are not sure whether they are dead or alive!😍