Christmas Dinner

Last evening the Bible study friends came for dinner. First Diann, with her yummy chocolate cookies and then a parade of bowls and baking dishes slid onto the kitchen counter. The kitchen filled with friends and their greetings. Can I help? Sure, put the butter on the dish, get the ice, lay out the silver, the rolls, the mugs... I felt like the kitchen was full of 15 of my sister Lulu putting the meal in order. Over dinner, it was gentle conversation and good, reviving laughter. Later, we gathered in a circle to talk a bit about Christmas and worship, exchanging stories... God is good. And collected money enough to send 2 goats and 2 chickens to a family without, somewhere in the world for our Christmas gift. After a plateful of dessert and more talk in little groups, we squeezed in and around the sofa while Larry stood up on a chair to get us all into a photo. Jill and I, sitting in the front, put on our party faces to diguise wrinkles. Then a flurry of finding coats, hugs, best wishes for Christmas and they were gone. It is a good, fortifying thing to know these women pray for me, for my children, for the days ahead we'll have at Christmas. It's a good, hopeful thing to know we'll be back together studying each Wednesday evening in the new year.