We have enjoyed our Christmas very much. Christian got a rock polisher and some memory for his Palm Zire 31 so he could do more stuff with it like use it as an MP3 player and play more games. Kelly got an iPod. Lorena got shopping (gift certificates). I got a new griddle for making omelette’s. We all got lots of clothes. This is the first year that Kelly and Christian went out and got gifts for everyone on their own. They did an awesome job. Grandpa Milo gave everyone some money–the most the kids had ever gotten in one chunk just for spending. So yesterday, we went down to the Big5 sporting goods store and they each bought a nice pair of inline skates with all the necessary knee and hand pads. One night, Micah came over to play with Christian for several hours. Another night, Hannah came over to play for the whole day. Kent Williston came over with Tony, Martha, and Josh Nelson on Christmas day for a beautiful ham dinner that Lorena prepared.
Tonight is the last Wednesday night bible study of 2006. We are studying Mark 16. It is amazing how there is always a message for me directly relevant to what is going on in my life. I must have never read Mark closely enough to have gotten this before, but toward the end of the chapter the apostles–the eleven servants of God who would take the gospel to the whole world–were upbraided by Jesus himself after the resurrection because they did not believe their friends who came to tell them that Jesus was risen. There was no reason that these friends would have lied to the apostles. They just wanted to convey the truth. I am sure these people loved the apostles as they loved Jesus. They were all in the same situation, confused and wanting to know what to do in a difficult situation. Maybe it was just that, in the end, the new was so good that they could not take it all in. The news being that Jesus is alive, he has his hand on us in all things, and he wants us to believe each other and love each other. I want to humble myself and do that more.