Reprieve

This is finals week at one school and the end of the first half of the school year at the other.

And, for weeks now, I've been building up in my mind that Christmas weekend was sitting like a big stop sign at the end of this week.

In fact, looking at the calendar with my eyes open and brain fully engaged, I realize that this weekend is only Christmas in that we'll be spending it with family and doing some of our gift exchanging.

Starting Friday, my brother and his family will arrive so that, Saturday, we can do the "Huber" Christmas with the folks I grew up with.

On Sunday, blessed of days, The Babe is being baptized. There just aren't enough exclamation points to tell you how excited I am about this event. The biggest reason, of course, is that Babe decided that this Jesus fellow was cool enough to follow. The secondary reason, which sounds so strangely Mormon to me as I type it, is that I am so very glad to know that, come what may, I will be reunited in Heaven with my entire nuclear family. The thought of that just makes my heart tingle.

Monday brings Hooman's birthday. Double digits will then forevermore be a part of his age. A very small party, Hoo's request, will commence. And, after, we'll be one step closer to the teenage years, where the promise of Heaven comes in handy when you are on your parents' last nerves and they would like to send you back from whence you came.

So, with all the activity, you can see how I was confused about "what's when". This weekend is almost as filled as Christmas weekend! But joyfully, I have a one week reprieve, if you will, from the actual big day.*

And, I like it this way. I kind of wish Christmas could come on a Sunday, with a full week off school prior, every year.

It seems to me that the more I've relaxed into the season, allowed it to flow, and refused to get stressed with all the details, time has multiplied.

I've had more time to ponder questions such as: were Mary and Joseph stressed out as they road/walked to Bethlehem so many years ago? Did they find comfort in knowing that they were following God's plan?

Did Mary lose her mind on Joseph when there was no hotel room and they ended up in a stable to deliver Jesus? Or did she count that as part of the plan, that the son of God would start life in such lowly conditions?

We'll never know those answers for sure, but isn't it comforting to know that, even when our plans don't go exactly the way we expected or when time is playing tricks on us or we feel the pressure building up, there is a way out?

There is a God who cares, who answers us, and who is ready and willing to provide the guidance we so need.

Praise be to Him, who can carry us in all situations, at all times, and in all places, until we are ready to walk again!

I, for one, am glad to rest in that knowledge, to take a reprieve being cradled by his love.

Not only for the rest of this season, but well beyond.


*With kids in tow, of course, which actually reduces it to more like a two-day reprieve, but I'll take it.