'Twas the Night Before Christmas

It's the evening of Dec 24. It's been quite some time since I've written. Not because I haven't been blessed...rather, I've had difficulty seeing it. Tonight God gave me new eyes. I saw the rejuvenated, angelic smile of Grama Letniak, 24 hours after we rushed her to the hospital, fearing pneumonia or worse. Fear of losing her sweet soul was swept away today. For precious minutes, I basked in the light of love. There's an eagerness in her eyes, an urgency in her soft, wrinkled hands, reaching to touch and kiss me. And the smile...when her lips pull back, her teeth glow, I can feel love. It's like an unseen light, mystical and warm, latches onto my heart, pulsing truer and purer love than all the poets and musicians could ever convey.
It's the love of God.

I received another gift tonight. It too is warm, supple in love and mystical. It's a Steps to Christ, World War II Army & Navy edition, bound by staples and glue, covered in a velvety, leather-like paper they don't make anymore. It's the most perfectly created book I've ever held. Thin and soft, it begs to be held, opened and read. The yellowed pages flip effortlessly; it's like a book of formed air, transcendent love of a Savior pressed into soft pages.

I held it a month ago, when it was my Grampa Bell's. Today I held it a second time; and this time it's mine. This book that my Grampa carried from the beginning of his walk with Christ, through missions to the mountains of BC and the wilds of East Africa, to staff morning worship at Branson Hospital, till faithful, daily devotions before he rises each day...this book brings me the strength, warmth and love of a God that has shone through F. Lloyd Bell like a lighthouse of joy, not a rotating light with shafts of brilliance in darkness, but a beacon aglow in all directions, beckoning and embracing anyone who can see it.

It's Christmas day in 30 minutes, but I've already received my best presents.