Page 362 has been filled with writing, study, and prep for the weekend.  After a late day out photographing in the cold, today began with the writing of yesterday’s page before turning my attention to the prayer guide for next week.  With my “usual” prayer guide writing time falling on Christmas Day, writing the next prayer guide on a Thursday makes it feel like a Monday.  As I spent time with God, my mind kept thinking about the “Watch & Pray” New Year’s Eve vigil I am working on for Sunday afternoon and evening.  Out of that came the topic for the next prayer guide — “Open Your Eyes”.  It is so easy to let life, even our prayer life, become so routine that we completely miss the important things around us.

Two passages came to mind as I worked on the topic of open your eyes.  The first was the account of Jesus and the disciples in the garden of Gethsemane.  The request of Jesus to His disciples was more than just for them to pray — they were asked to “watch and pray”.  Jesus wanted His followers to pay attention as they prayed.  The other passage was from 2 Kings where the prophet Elisha prayed that God would open the eyes of his servant to see the help God had sent.  When circumstances looked impossible, God was at work in the heavenly realms to provide help that could not be seen with eyes that had not been opened.  While most of us probably began our prayer life with hands folded, heads bowed, and eyes closed, I believe it is more important now than ever that God’s people turn to Him in prayer with eyes wide open.

Once the prayer guide was written and then formatted and scheduled to be sent out, I spent the rest of the day focused on the sermon I’ll share Sunday focused on the same subject of praying that God would open our eyes.  The temperature outside today was so cold that it was good to keep busy in the office but it also meant that the birds outside my window stayed out of sight and I didn’t go out in search of other photo opportunities.  So, today’s photo is one that I took yesterday as we arrived at Holland State Park as the sun broke through the clouds.  Our entire drive from the highway out to the lakefront was through snow falling so heavily that it was difficult to see.  It was looking like the entire trip would result in no photos as nothing could be seen.  But as soon as we reached the park property and was in view of the “Big Red” lighthouse, the snow stopped and the sun began to peek through the cloud cover.

As I reflect on the day, here are some thoughts/lessons that stand out to me:

• It is fun to celebrate important events, such as Christmas and birthdays, with family but eventually life returns to some semblance of “normal”.
• I am thankful for the variety of work God allows me to do and I pray that it is always done for His glory.
• When we pray for God to open our eyes, it ought to change how we pray as God removes our “tunnel vision”.
• We will usually miss most of what we aren’t looking for . . . and not even know we missed it.
• Our battle is not against flesh and blood and when we pray with open eyes we begin to see glimpses into the realm where the battle is taking place.
• It is far easier, but far less effective, to pray that God would “bless the sick” than it is to open our eyes and visit the sick and pray with them.
• The sun is always behind the clouds even when it requires perseverance in order to see it.

Page 361 continued with the heart of winter as the air temperature made it all the way up to 1 degree by the time I headed out the door to clear snow from the sidewalks at work.  Bundled up with enough layers, it wasn’t too bad being outside and I always enjoy watching the arcs of snow flying from the snow blower.  There is something calming to my spirit when I see the crisp lines of a cleared walk in the  midst of a blanket of snow.  

After getting the building ready for use, I headed home to spend some time with my family as the next few days will be very busy getting ready for the weekend with the opportunity to preach and lead a New Year’s Eve prayer vigil.  After lunch we decided to head north to see what we could find to photograph.  Our hope was to cross paths with a snowy owl or two, but knew that would be a bonus if we did.  We had not driven more than a couple miles before we were diverted off the highway due to an accident ahead.  We kept going, though, and drove through times of clear weather with an occasional near white-out due to heavy snowfall.  Our first stop was at Holland State Park in Holland, Michigan where a snowy owl had been reported last week.  We didn’t see an owl, but as soon as I got out of the truck something flew overhead.  I zoomed in with my camera and discovered it was a bald eagle.  Sometimes you don’t see what you expect or hope for, but there are still plenty of beautiful sights if you look.

After photographing the lakefront scenes and the “Big Red” lighthouse at Holland State Park, we headed back toward home with our next stop in South Haven, Michigan to photograph the lighthouse there.  It was cold, but the photo opportunities were worth being out and the truck heater was very functional and welcome relief between stops.  By the time we stopped at Silver Beach in St Joseph, Michigan it was completely dark but I wanted to try a shot or two from the tripod.  Today’s photo is one that I took on manual settings with about a 30 second exposure setting.  From my location, all that could be clearly seen were the occasional flashes of light from the three beacons.  By collecting each of those flashes over a 30 second time period, there was enough light to make the lighthouses and pier visible.  Sometimes we may think our light isn’t much, but if we continue to let it shine we may be surprised at how much God will illuminate with it.

As I reflect on the day, here are some thoughts/lessons that stand out to me:

• Needing to spend an hour or so working outside in the cold winter weather makes me more appreciative of those who have to work out in it each and every day.
• Preparation can make the difference between enjoying the winter weather or not.
• While we often prepare for expected conditions in life, do we spend more time preparing for eternity?
• Different weather conditions require different driving speeds.  Do we adjust our speed through life each day based on that day’s conditions?
• When we pursue God, we don’t always find what we think we want but He always reveals Himself in the way we need.
• As a Christian, the light you have is the light of Jesus within you — it is enough.

Page 360 began sometime in the middle of the night or early morning hours as I woke up to the sounds of Susan having a seizure.  After sitting with her and making sure she came through it and could go back to sleep, I also went back to sleep and managed to sleep in longer than I have for quite some time.  Once I woke up I took care of some of my usual morning postings and then began to get things ready for the Lemler family Christmas gathering.  

Once the truck was packed, we made a quick stop at Meijer to pick up the remaining supplies I needed to make home-made ice cream.  Home-made ice cream has been a Lemler Christmas tradition for a lot of years now and I suspect there would be some rather disappointed family members if the ice cream freezer didn’t show up.  🙂  After we ate lunch, it was time to bring out the ice cream maker and this year we went back to the hand crank.  The last few years the electric motor didn’t seem to turn both the bucket and dasher correctly and we ended up finishing it by hand, so this year I decided to skip the electric motor completely.  It was fun as a new generation joined in on the cranking process and was able to enjoy the result of their work.

After the Christmas gathering we made a trip through Potato Creek State Park to wrap up the day and see what we could find to photograph.  The geese had gathered on the remaining open water of the lake and a number of swans were setting on the ice.  There were a lot of songbirds keeping active in the tall grass and weeds along the roadway as it protected them from the harsh wind.  The eagles and heron were staying out of sight, but we did see a hawk or two as we were ready to leave the park.  The thing that drew most of our photographic effort was the setting sun that began to light up the sky as we drove through the park.  Today’s photo was taken across one of the meadows as the sun’s ball of fire set beyond the treeline.

As I reflect on the day, here are some thoughts/lessons that stand out to me:

• Our lives are not lived alone.
• The sufferings of the ones we love become our sufferings . . . and their joys become our joys.
• How we suffer alongside the suffering says more about us than it does about them.
• My wrist-worn activity tracker says that my sleep is not nearly as deep after it is interrupted as before, but it still feels good to sleep in after the disruption.
• It seems most people have a love/hate relationship with tradition — they love the traditions that they like and hate the ones that they don’t like . . . kind of sounds like a personal problem rather than a tradition problem.
• Traditions done right can give existing and new generations something to look forward to and value together.
• Having a hand in making something can help us enjoy it even more than if we weren’t involved.
• The things we pass on to the generations following us have the power to connect people of all ages.
• It is nearly impossible to go wrong if ice cream is a part of a tradition.
• Even when the bitter cold drives much of the wildlife out of sight, there is incredible beauty all around us to be seen and photographed.

Page 358 was a Sunday that began very early as I headed into work to do some cleaning and building prep as I waited for the snow to arrive.  There was a feel of snow in the air as I headed out into the early morning darkness, but none had arrived yet so I began with giving the floors a good scrubbing when I arrived at work so they would be clean and dry by the time people arrived.  Once the floors were ready, I turned my attention to bathrooms and the rest of the building as I continued my morning prayer and work.  Once the building was ready for the day, I sat down to rest until the snow finally arrived just before the start of our morning worship gathering.  It began as a very fine snow — almost a drizzle in snow form — so I went out to spread some ice melt on the walks to keep the early snow from sticking as it arrived.

It was a great Christmas Eve worship gathering filled with Christmas carols and reminders not only of the birth of Christ, but also of the purpose of His birth here on earth — to save His people from their sins.  David’s sermon used the text of the Magi, or Wise Men, from Matthew 2 as we looked at the gift they gave that was even greater than the “gold, frankincense, and myrrh” that we are most familiar with — they came to give the gift of worship!  Here are some thoughts that I took away from that message:

• Their gift was deliberate:  These were not just some wandering nomads that decided to help out this poor family that they just happened to stumble upon as they traveled.  They had studied every resource available to them and concluded that a sign they had seen in the heavens — a star — proclaimed a new king of the Jews had been born.  Instead of simply noticing the star and thinking, “that was nice”, they set off on a deliberate journey and search until they found the one they were looking for.  Given the time frame of their story, their arrival at a house where Mary, Joseph, and Jesus were living, and the decision by Herod to kill all infant boys two years old and under; it would appear that this search and journey could have taken the better part of two years!  Yet through it all, their story to Herod and to Mary and Joseph, was their intent to come and worship this One born king.  Are you and I that deliberate in our worship of God every day, or are we content to worship when we feel like it or someone lead us, and not give any thought to worship at other times? 
• Their gift was given in complete humility:  The Magi had the resources available to them to not only give gifts of great financial value, but also to travel the great distances and time required to deliver them in person.  It would appear, because of their study, insight, and great wisdom, that they would have been thought very highly of in their homeland.  The fact that they were even able to appear before Herod to inquire about the location a king of the Jews would be born in, would say that they were seen as very important people not only in their home country, but wherever they went.  Yet when they reach the house where they find Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, their presentation of gifts is not a formal, diplomatic event but a humble act of worship.  How we give is just as important, perhaps more important, than what we give.  No matter how important, or unimportant, we think we are or others think we are, our approach to God must always be in humility.  God says He “opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”  Our gift of worship is pleasing to God when we bow our hearts and minds and present ourselves to Him in full recognition of who we are compared to who He is.
• Their gift was designed by God to accomplish God’s purpose:  There is so much of the Christmas story that we know, so much we think we know because we’ve heard it in certain ways for so long, and so much we don’t really know simply because God didn’t say.  Some things are easy to “connect the dots” in a manner that makes sense and creates a finished “picture”, so the likelihood of things happening in a certain way becomes settled in our mind — whether true or not.  What we can be certain of, whether we figure out the reason or not, is that God has a purpose for the gifts He has given us and as we share them, He uses them to accomplish His purpose.  I believe we would not even know the story of the Magi if God did not have a purpose for which He used them and a purpose for us to learn from.  While very little of the known world clamored around to celebrate the birth of Jesus, God sent people — shepherds and Magi — to worship this child born to Mary.  I suspect that to Mary and Joseph, these unplanned visitors were reassuring to them that the news given to them by an angel had not just been some strange dream but was the very truth of God.  And in arriving to worship and then leaving gifts of great value, it is likely that the Magi were used by God to finance the journey to Egypt that would be undertaken by Mary and Joseph to protect Jesus from the rage of Herod.  The problem with what we have being used by God is that He usually expects us to be involved in the using of His gifts to accomplish His purpose.  He doesn’t show up at night and take money out of our wallet to help a person in need.  No, He supplies our need according to His riches in glory and then gives us the opportunities to be used by Him.  As we live in obedience to God, He often calls us to simply give and trust Him to use our giving to accomplish His purpose.

After the church service, we got things around and headed to a family Christmas gathering.  The snowflakes had become larger and more plentiful so the driving was considerably slower than usual.  It was a restful afternoon and evening spent with family and watching birds outside the windows.  The birds seemed just as excited about the food available to them as they humans were about the food spread out before them. 🙂  Today’s photo is one of my favorites from the afternoon as two birds shared a suet cake that was hanging in a feeder in the falling snow.  As the day came to a close, I headed to bed with an unwritten page in my mind that I have now written the next morning.

As I reflect on the day, here are some thoughts/lessons that stand out to me:

• Rest is an interesting thing — not enough of it and I feel bad, too much of it (as if there is such a thing) and I feel bad, just enough of it and I feel good! 🙂
• I am usually much more productive when I am rested than if I try to start a task while I am weary.
• I like routine but sometimes thinking ahead helps me to see when my routine needs to be changed up a bit for a greater good.
• I will never offer God the worship He deserves by accident — I must choose to do so.
• I will never offer God the worship He deserves when I think too highly of myself — I must approach Him with complete humility.
• I will never offer God the worship He deserves if I keep His gifts to myself — I must make myself fully available to Him.
• Snowy days may slow us down, or at least should slow us down on the roadways, but they are still beautiful.
• Whatever we have brings greater joy and fulfillment when we share it with others.

Page 357 has been another quiet day as I am trying to not get or fight off — I’m not sure which — the latest winter bug that seems to be roaming about.  My day began early, for a Saturday, as I prepared some pork shoulders to go on the pellet grill.  Once they were prepped and the pellet grill was warmed up, I put them on to begin the slow cook/smoke process to get them ready for a couple Christmas dinners.

While the grill was working away doing its thing, I spent some more time going through photos from the year in between times of rest.  The photos are from all seasons but with snow in the forecast, I chose one that reminds me of summer for the photo on today’s page.  I suppose there are things about each season that I’m not particularly fond of, but there are also things that I truly enjoy about each.  If I focus on photos of roses and the beauty of summer I find that I think more highly of the season than if I would collect photos of mosquitoes to remember it by.  🙂  Much of life is like that — we have a choice as to what we hold onto in our mind and that choice plays a huge part in determining how we view things.

The afternoon was more of the morning activities with a longer nap thrown in for good measure.  Shortly after the 10 hour mark on the grill, the internal temperature of the smaller of the pork shoulders was showing it to be done so I took it off and began the process of filling a crockpot and kettle full of pulled pork.  The three shoulders I had on the grill were slightly different sizes, so the progression of them getting done and my taking them off and pulling them went rather smoothly.  The last one just came off, so while it is cooling enough to handle I decided to write today’s page.  I still have the cleaning and building prep to do before church tomorrow, but with the snow in the forecast I may just get up early and do it in the morning as it sounds likely I will have to go in early anyhow.

As I reflect on the day, here are some thoughts/lessons that stand out to me:

• I am thankful for days of rest — especially when my mind and body make it clear that I need it.
• Some things are much better if they are not rushed.
• If you want something now, you probably should have started working toward it some time ago.
• God tells us to take every thought captive because He knows that is how we can train our attitudes.
• It is difficult, if not impossible, to only think about pleasant things because unpleasant things do happen.  
• Even when we experience unpleasant things, we still have the choice about what we allow our mind to dwell on.
• I prefer roses to mosquitoes. 🙂
• Sometimes my planning works out and sometimes it doesn’t — God’s always does.

Page 356 ended up being a quiet work from home day.  The preschool had their Christmas program today and MJ needed to be to work early to make sure everything was ready for that.  Susan continues to recover from last week’s big seizure and the weather patterns have not been conducive to her sleeping well, so I stayed home with her so she could catch up on some sleep.  Most of my morning was spent deep within the beauty of my accounting software as I worked on current and end of the year missions finances.  Eventually, as the morning slipped away, Susan decided it was time for her to get up for the day so I made sure she found some clothes for the day then decided to give myself a haircut while she got dressed.

By afternoon I decided to straighten up my work area at home and reduce some of the pile of papers on my desk.  As I worked my way down through the pile, I kept coming across different gift cards to various places.  After filling a trash bag with things from my desk that I didn’t need, I decided to go online and see if I could find balances for these gift cards.  Some of them had not been used at all and still had the full amount listed on the card, others had been used and had odd amounts remaining, and still others had been completely used and had no balance.  All together, my desk cleaning project netted me $211.26 in gift card value to places that I frequent — not a bad bonus for a couple hours of cleaning.  Speaking of cleaning, the rest of my workday will take place sometime between now and early Sunday morning as I will need to clean bathrooms, floors, and doors as part of getting the building ready for our Sunday morning worship gathering.

With no new photos taken today, I chose one for today’s page that I took a few days ago.  It is interesting because it was from the evening we found the snowy owl and was able to get some photographs of it.  Any other day and the sunset scenes that I was able to capture would have gotten greater attention, but even this sunset photo of the Michigan City lighthouse with the Chicago skyline in the background took a back seat to the excitement of being able to find the snowy owl.

As I reflect on the day, here are some thoughts/lessons that stand out to me:

• I always find it interesting when people think that it’s special when I arrange my day to care for the needs of my daughter.  It is special that I have the flexibility to do that, but I’m pretty sure the actual doing it is what I’m supposed to do. 🙂
• I suppose it’s partly because I’m so detail oriented, but few things raise red flags in my mind about organizations as quickly as a lack of financial integrity.
• Numbers and I get along well . . . no middle ground, we are what we are. 
• I suppose it’s a self-conscious  thing, but I get embarrassed easily — even about things that shouldn’t be that big of a deal . . . like trying to use a gift card that may or may not have a balance on it.
• Little things add up.  That can be good or bad depending on the nature of the little things.
• Sometimes things captivate us so much that we miss all of the other things we ought to be noticing also.

Being the first official day of winter, the cold weather decided to move back in under a mostly overcast sky.  Page 355 began with the usual early morning prayer, cleaning, and building prep as well as some extra work to clean up between school programs.  With the building ready for the activities of the day, I finished up the writing of yesterday’s page before turning my attention doing some inventory of supplies.  The inventory revealed some supplies I would soon be out of, so I spent the morning shopping so I could get it done before the Christmas shopping traffic picked up for the day.  

While it wasn’t too bad compared to what afternoons and evenings tend to be this time of year, there were very few stoplights that I could make it through in one cycle of the light.  Fortunately, the supplies I needed were not at popular Christmas shopping stores so actually getting the supplies wasn’t too bad.  Susan and I made our way back through the traffic and had lunch while we were out.  By mid-afternoon we made our way to Potato Creek to see what I could find to photograph.  It was still a rather cold and dreary looking day but I did find a hawk and several heron, including the one that made today’s photo.  The evening has been spent resting and writing as I look forward to the Christmas break and no alarm clock.

As I reflect on the day, here are some thoughts/lessons that stand out to me:

• Even on the quiet days with very little to write, there are probably still lessons that  I ought to be learning.
• A periodic inventory can be a good thing — both at work and in life.
• It is usually better to refill what you’re low on before you actually run out.
• When you know things are always a certain way, you probably shouldn’t act surprised when they are.
• Most people seem to live life in too much of a hurry.
• It seems yellow lights really have come to mean “hurry up, you can probably make it.”
• Sometimes you need to do things in a way that you know will take longer, but you also know it will be better for everybody involved.
• If I go out to photograph something very specific, I am often disappointed.  If I’m looking to discover whatever can be seen, I always find something.