Here is a rendition of the Christmas story re-enacted by the Adult Sunday School.  Thank you, Rosanna, for the artwork.

Unexpected Blessings

This weekend we crossed an irrevocable boundary in our household.  The kids' Nana and Papa came to visit from Boise...always a great event!  Because the Boise crew won't be here for birthdays or Christmas, Nana and Papa brought presents.  The kids got to open them early.  What fun!

The irrevocable boundary crossing came courtesy of Aunt Laurie, Careen's sister.  Derek and Ali opened their bags from her and saw twin boxes of...Legos.  We are not unfamiliar with building toys in our household.  Derek has some Tinker Toys.  Both the kids have the big, toddler version of Legos, the Mega Bloks.  Those are relatively harmless.  The pieces are big, easy to find and pick up.  Both the kids have a habit of leaving their Mega Bloks on the floor.  Clean-up sessions and the difficulty of keeping all the parts intact and in a single bag led us to decide that the time for tiny and numerous Legos was...not yet.

Except...Merry Christmas!  Happy Birthday!  And now we have Legos.  And of course both the kids love them.  What are you gonna do?  Prepare to sweep under beds for small parts, to hear rattling noises in your vacuum cleaner, and to hear constant choruses of, "Dad!  Can you help me build the thing in this picture?"

But you know what?  That's a good thing.  Even things you don't expect become teaching moments.  Like, "You know those pictures are just suggestions, right?  It's much cooler to build your own thing."  You don't have to be ready for something, let alone control it, in order to benefit from it.  Not everything in life happens in the way you expect.  Happiness and well-being don't depend on anticipating events correctly as much as how you deal with the events you didn't anticipate.

Legos are cool.  We're going to have hours of family fun with them.  I'll have even more fun watching Derek and Ali create with them.  No amount of small pieces in the vacuum cleaner can take that away.  Let the Lego Era begin!

--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)