Where Is KB?

I have the distinct feeling that the real Kara Beth is missing in action. The Kara Beth that I know and appreciate is the one who puts up her Christmas decorations in September and takes them down at the end of January at the earliest.

Today, there was a woman who seemed a lot like my own sweet self who insisted on removing the majority of the Christmas ornaments at the Huddleston home. I ’bout kicked her crazy backside out the door!

But, alas! The things she took down would not have lasted a second during the upcoming Ping Pong Wars. The round table vignette shown above barely survived the klutziness of the owner of the home who spent a long period of time at the beginning of the season in a wheelchair.

But after losing at least one angel last year, the crazy old woman decided it is in her best interest to rid her living room of as many of her objets d’art as possible to avoid more mass destruction. So I am allowing Kara Beth to turn over a new leaf.

As I took apart the ugliest tree in the universe today, I remembered with great happiness how Ronald had seen my sadness during the first week of September and brought in box after box of Christmas decorations. I recalled how I struggled to decorate the frame from my wheelchair and how the Lord gave me energy to complete the task without bending or stretching past the medical guidelines. I remembered how I had given away over a hundred ornaments last year. My poor little tree couldn’t have worn anymore than I had left anyway, so all was well.

I did keep a few lights and ornaments on the piano and hearth – mostly because I need to get another plastic tub to put the items in. And I still want a little bit of extra light in the early morning darkness and the deep gloom of night. So I guess the ‘real’ Kara Beth is not totally lost after all!

With tomorrow being Christmas, I am taking time to wonder at it all. How could God love us so much? I would have loved to have held baby Jesus. Did he cry like a real baby? Why didn’t everyone see the star and follow it? Why were the shepherds the only ones who saw and heard the angels praising God? Did the people the shepherds told go see the baby, or did they dismiss their claims?

I wonder if I truly take time to see God’s Son touching my own life today. Do I see His hand showing me the way I should go? Do I see His Presence in my personal world?

John 1:1-5  NKJV  ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.’

John 1:14 NKJV   ‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we behold His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.’

1 John 4:9 NKJV. ‘In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.’