Day 72 This is That Time

3/13/2025

  

Holidays have always been important for me. As a child my grandparents were the center of my world. In fact, every thing revolved around them. Any time I had a chance I would spend the night with Grammy and Papa, cooking and crafting with Grammy and watching Roller Derby or wrestling on television with my Papa. Every Friday Papa would come to our house to pick mama up, so they could go grocery shopping together. He owned his own garage in the country, so he'd come after he closed on Friday afternoon. It was like clockwork each week. Other days he'd stop by the house just to take us riding, often asking where I'd like to go. Even after I was grown and married, he'd ask me where I'd like to go for special family picnics. I loved my grandparents so much. Just being around them was an adventure.

My grandparents had eight children - 4 sons and 4 daughters. My mama was the second born. Every Sunday we would all spend time with my grandparents. Most of the children lived close by, but my uncle Sonny lived in California, so they would usually get home once a year, and that was a very special time for me, as they  had two daughters, Kaye and Susan. I loved playing games with them, and even the adults used to love to play a card game, Canasta. On Sundays we would all be in church together, and afterwards we would meet at Grammy's and Papa's and have a meal. The men and little children always ate first, the men in the kitchen and the little kids in the living room at little tables set up just for them. The women and older female children would eat last. As a Southern woman I learned to take care of the men in the family. I imagine it was because they were the heads of the house. Many women now days would balk at that idea, but it was never a problem for my mother and her sisters, and it has never been a problem for the kids. We learned the importance of service.

I remember Christmases at their house. The grown ups and the children would draw names for gift exchange. My sister recalls being called upon to wrap the gifts, and one year she accidentally marked two gifts wrong. My cousin Ray was the recipient of a ladies slip, while the other person received a gift that was not embarrassing and seemed to "fit." I don't know how they righted that fiasco, but it has given us quite a chuckle remembering the look on his face when he opened his gift. There are so many fond memories of these days, and when I do see my cousins, we love to swap stories. In my immediate family, my mama carried on the tradition of the three children getting together on holidays at our parents' home. When I moved away the tradition stopped, and I believe it may have been one of the reasons my mama became so sad later in life.

Three years ago I moved back to Virginia, and I purchased  my parents' home, the home we were raised in. It was hard moving back, because I'd been away so long, and I loved being where I was. My parents and grandparents have already moved their permanent address to Heaven with Jesus, and although I know they would never want to leave there, still I miss them, and the loss still hurts and holidays never the same. The best part is that I will see them again, and we will be together forever in eternity. I look forward to my heavenly home, and although I will be anxious to see all the loved ones and friends who chose the gift of God's great love and have gone before me, the one I want to see the most is Jesus. I am so eager to see His face and feel His embrace. I get giddy thinking about how wonderful that day will be!

Over the past few years I have been learning about the Lord's feasts and traditions of the Jewish people. Tomorrow will be Purim, not a feast day of the Lord, but it is a time of great celebration preceded by a time of fasting and drawing closer to God. Purim celebrates the story of Queen Esther written about in the Bible in the book bearing her name. It is a time of celebration and a time of dressing up in costumes and reenacting the Esther story. Children have so much fun acting out the scenes, but I think adults enjoy it equally well. The past two years have been bittersweet for Israel, since the war and the kidnapping of hostages, still some being held by the enemy Hamas. The interesting part of it is that Haman, the villain in the story of Esther, who wanted to annihilate the Jews, because Mordecai, a Jew, refused to bow down to him, did not realize that Queen Esther was a Jew. Haman was an Agagite, who were descendants of Amalek, and all through Jewish history the Amalekites' one desire was to eradicate the existence of the Jewish people. So the conflict today, the evil hatred, comes from Hamas, whose descendants come from Amalek. The story line involving Amalek goes all the way back to Abraham who was the first ancestor and where the Jewish nation began. Children love to celebrate Purim by dressing up as Haman and rehearsing the story, and in spite of all that is happening, the people honor the tradition.

I am very grateful for my family heritage, and the love and kindness I learned as a child and tried to teach into my own family. My grandparents taught me about the love of family, and more importantly, the love of Christ. My parents in turn raised my sister, brother, and I up in the instruction of the Lord, and in turn, I passed my beliefs on to my children. So many things have changed, and many seasons have gone by. I seldom see my extended family except at funerals, but my sister and I have decided that we need to do something to change that. In this time of chaos and extreme confusion, family values need to be nurtured, God's character needs to shine forth in our lives to those who do not know Him, who never had a family to teach them the values of a life hidden in Christ. I hope my sister and I can make it happen, as time is getting short. We need to make the most of every opportunity to share love to as many as we can, any way we can, as long as we can. This is the time!