Don't Cry, You Can Rely on Me Honey

Well, there was no White Christmas again this year for the Scott family. I guess my hopes should not be too high living in East Texas, but at least we did not have the mess in the Ohio Valley and other portions of the midwest. We were planning to go to my Grandma's in Indiana, but the storm was rolling through our planned course at the time that we were going to be driving up there, and so we had Christmas among the pines.

Christmas Eve over at the Johnson's was a lot of fun, and I was able to learn some simple lessons from some small people. Cameron (5 yrs. old), Brady (9 yrs), and I played with a simple balloon that Cameron received from the dentist for what seemed like hours, even though it may have only been a few minutes. To look at Cameron and Brady wrestle and laugh as brothers do, to see Cameron laugh at such a simple act of play, I remembered that it is often more important to love life than the meaning of it. So often I get caught up worrying about things that I cannot control or change, and I forget to remember that this life is a beautiful one.

Yes, there is pain. Yes, there is doubt. Yes, there is disappointment, but there is also beauty. And despite all of the darkness in the world, that beauty always seems to break through the night. I am starting to learn that faith is not acting like problems don't exist, but to remember and proclaim that God is good in spite of the pain and fear. We cannot abdicate all responsibility in examining our condition as humans, but we also cannot forget that we have the opportunity to access the beauty of the universe each day through the people, situations, and sights around us.