From Alleluia to Zion, (beginning to end) we are looking at our year
and at Christmas in a new light:
friends, faithful patrons, fellow temple workers, radiant students
(with our visiting--I had to catch the color change of sky and earth!)
mothers
aunties and friends
--preparing ourselves to depart again and work to be ready for our new Guatemala, Cobán mission assignment--hoping to encourage young missionaries and/or struggling branches;
(Here we are at our Comayaguela Honduras mission office, boning up--can you see Excel spreadsheets beaming from the inner soul??)
(The field and the fruit is white...the laborers readying to garner the sheaves!)
Singing with (JOY!) for/with neighbors this week, we continue to look for the star (Shine for me again, Star of Bethlehem!) as we tackle a leaking shower by remodel,
(our own version of gold, frankincense and myrrh)
and juggle months into a remaining few weeks in defiance of our less than perfect world.
As Maria moaned this week, recovering from wisdom teeth removal,
some close friends cheerfully arrived,
ice cream in hand ready to help her forget her pain in a card game of "Pounce." Our hearts warm in a thought that it is the human element (not only a star in the sky or on a tree, but the arrival of welcome visitors) that invites us in to the Christmas story.
As part of our family gathers this week at our home and phones reach out to more, we extend interest and love to our friends in search of a star in their lives--"Do not despair, your star is still there!"
expended in helping him survive his first four years:
The climax of the children's movie "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown" speaks to Sarah in the words " For unto YOU is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord" (emphasis added.)
Why use those particular words? Because, it was for her...and for me, and for you (see: He is the Gift) that there came something Wonderful! A Prince of Peace!
(sculpture in LDS Conference Center)
We are praying for such a gift to personally knock upon your door, to elevate you from the challenges of your mortality--
If He was born to raise the sons of earth...what if we allow the Spirit of this holy season to tutor, to teach and to lift us each, and to bless us, every one?
May there be comfort and hope in your Christmas time and the beginning of our coming New Year of promise.
We genuinely love you! Laurene and Val
Starkey