The High Calling of God

 12/18/2022

For the past couple of years, I have been collecting vintage Christmas ornaments and decorations. I guess the older I get, the more I appreciate older things. My husband and I often browse through antique shops and malls. We just enjoy walking down memory lane and spying things that bring back a warm and fuzzy feeling from our youth. I love finding that just one special item. I am not into spending a lot of money for anything. If I find something I like and it is within my price range, then I will buy it.  This past Christmas season I went on the search again. At one particular antique mall, I hit the mother lode!   You must really look for things sometimes. I like to look in the nooks and crannies. Often that is where I find those hidden treasures. At one particular store, way in the back of the cubicle, behind some other items, I spied it! A box on the floor filled with those vintage glass ornaments that I love. The older the better. I don’t care if they are chipped or have lost

Ephesians 2:8-9 “” For by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast.” (NIV) As I was praying the other day, meditating on God’s grace, a memory from my past suddenly came to me. It was Christmas 1970- a few months before I totally gave my life over to the Lord. The year before, I graduated high school and had started college and was preparing to become an elementary teacher. But having gone through a lot of personal issues I quit in my second semester.   I couldn’t find any work, was living with my parents and taking care of the home while they worked.   With no purpose in life, I felt like a failure. On Christmas eve of that year, I spied a very large box under the tree.   My mom told me I could go ahead and open it then. To my surprise and delight it was a chord organ-one of those small ones that I liked. My grandma had one and when we would visit her, I would play hers. When I saw wh

  So, here we are once again, counting down the hours to the end of the year. I thought last year was tough. This one was also. Things have settled down and settled in- the loss, the grief, but we learn to deal with it and remember all the good things. God performed some miracles here and there for us and has brought us through. I am so thankful for a loving and forgiving God, that knows everything about me-my faults, my flaws and my mess ups- and yet— leads me to feast at His table filled with grace, love and forgiveness. My prayer for 2023 is from Psalm 73:17 “But I’ll keep coming closer and closer to You, Lord Yawheh, for Your name is good to me. I’ll keep telling the world of Your awesome works, my faithful and glorious God.”  (The Passion Translation). Praying God’s blessings on all my family and friends in the coming year and that you,too, will draw closer to the Lord. ~ Donna