One of the oft repeated phrases in our house is “You don’t
need more stuff, you need more contentment.” Joshua and I pull it out after toy commercials or walking past toy store
windows or pretty much any contact with toys that do not belong to our children. Some day the girls will surprise us and use
it on us when we’re walking past an Apple Store. In this season bookended by Thanksgiving and
Christmas we have a welcome reminder to stop and contemplate what we have been
given.
home/hōm/ (noun) The place where one lives permanently, esp. as a member of
a family or household.
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We have called so many places home in the last year due to
our travels in the US. We were
overwhelmed by the hospitality offered us.
But at the end of our trip we looked forward into walking into our own
front door and sleeping in our own beds.
On the short walk between the bus stop and church there is
an abandoned market square, with crumbling cement stalls losing the battle with
the weeds. As we walked into the cold wind
this Sunday I watched some children duck out of one of the stalls, run to
another and knock on the scrap wood covering the doorway. There are families living in those buildings,
without insulation, heat, or plumbing. I
am thankful for an apartment with a door that locks and windows the wind can’t
penetrate, radiators giving off heat, pipes running with water. We are richly blessed, and deeply
responsible. When I pointed the
makeshift homes out to Noemi she instantly tried to think of ways to help.
We are thankful Jesus left the unimaginable luxury of His
home in heaven and came to earth where he had “no place to lay his head.” (Luke
9:58) We are looking forward to our forever home in heaven with him, and
praying that the families living in the market stalls today will join us there,
living in the joy of God’s presence.
hope/hōp/ (noun) 1archaic
: trust, reliance
2a : desire
accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment; also :
expectation of fulfillment or success
b
: someone or something on which hopes are centered
The train’s headlights were shining on the walls of the
tunnel as it headed around the corner to pull into the station. A woman slid off the platform, onto the
tracks and walked into the tunnel. The
people nearby instantly reacted with frantic shouts, arms waving. Somehow the train stopped in time and she was
rescued, for the moment. Joshua and
Noemi witnessed this episode from farther down the platform. A few days earlier one of Joshua’s students
was late to class in the morning because of a similar event on her train. We imagine the financial climate here has
something to do with these incidents, but there could be any number of
explanations. When it comes down to it,
the despair of life without Christ must be overwhelming.
We are thankful for the hope He gives us. Jesus not only
gives us hope, He IS our hope. Merry
Christmas from the Dunckel Family! Thank
you for partnering with us in sharing this hope!