2020 brings in a new decade, a new year, new desires, new outlooks, and new beginnings, and with my upcoming eye exam, I desire 20/20 “perfect vision”. However, at my age, my eyesight lacks these numbers as I read the dreaded eye chart.
The eye chart measures visual acuity, which reveals the clearness or sharpness of your vision. The top number represents your distance in feet from the chart. The bottom number indicates the distance at which a person with normal eyesight can read the same line.
A person with 20/20 vision can see what an average individual can see on an eye chart when they stand 20 feet away.
As I listened to music and pranced around my decorations, my eyes focused on the Christmas wreath hanging on the center of my front door. Despite the many colorful and decorated wreaths available today, I still prefer the traditional green wreath with the red ribbon and red bow. Why? Because it reminds me of the real gift of Christmas given to us many years ago. What gift? The gift of salvation…the gift of eternal life.
Four things about the Christmas wreath point to this precious gift.
Thanksgiving looms just around the corner and I feel the excitement of family gatherings and the traditional foods accompanying this holiday. Tables set with turkey, ham, dressing, macaroni and cheese, rice and gravy, cranberry sauce, casseroles, corn, broccoli, and buttered rolls trigger hunger pains. Pumpkin, potato, and apple pies resting on the dessert table along with various assortments of cakes and cookies kill our diet plans. Time to get the plates out.
The Thanksgiving plate…filled to the brim with lots of our favorite foods. A plate packed and running over with very little room for the fork to rest its prongs. A plate carefully divided with above average proportions of the main menu items. A separate plate to savor multiple desserts. A plate salivated over, hopefully prayed over, prepared just for you and me, and ready to be worshipped.
The Thanksgiving plate reminded me of the plate, our life, we prepare for Jesus.
This past July, I traveled to Miami with excitement when asked by my son and daughter to come for a visit. Ryan planned a short weekend birthday outing for Dani and wanted someone to keep the babies as well as spend the fourth of July with them. Needless to say, I accepted the invitation.
The weekend with my grandchildren went off without any incidents. I drove them to their swimming lessons. We ate out at their favorite eating spots. We played games, walked around the lake, stayed up late, and on Sunday morning, I got all three of them dressed and ready for Sunday service. We savored our time together.
When Dani and Ryan returned, we all celebrated the fourth at the pool playing in the water and eating hotdogs, chicken, and hamburgers. The time spent with my family proved to be a much-needed vacation for me. However, doing my stay, my little grandson, Judgy tested me. His action reminded me of how we tend to behave sometimes.
Judgy lives in the “terrible twos” stage
he memory of my first job in high school set off a thought. I worked at Burger King and since I love to eat, this job proved to be a blessing for me. During that era, Burger King provided our lunch or dinner depending on the shift worked. Yep, I consumed my fill of whoppers with cheese, fries and coke. Heaven!!!
But the memory triggering my thought centered not on the food, but Burger King’s slogan. See, you could order the standard, traditional or established Whooper. Then again, the Have It Your Way slogan emphasized the idea of customization. They urged you to add or remove any of the basic ingredients to your hamburger. In other words, between the sesame seed buns, you get your whopper the way you want it. My perfect order?
A Whopper with cheese… ketchup, mayo, pickles and onions. Add extra lettuce and tomatoes, but absolutely no mustard!
Many of us desire to Have It Our Way when it comes to living this life.
Desperate to assign blame for who I am today, I embarked on a sacred mission. I scoured old pictures and canvassed articles and books. I conducted a memory search of events in my life. I discovered something interesting…. I missed out on a lot of things as a child. Lots of things other kids did, I never experienced. And it hit me… it was all “Mama’s Fault!”