A few days before Christmas--everything was in place--all the decorations and ornaments from long Christmases past--the worn little pipe-cleaner chain that my 40 year old son made when he was about 4; the mason jar glittered lid that my 43 year old had made when he was but a small tyke; the white fabric bauble inscribed with the scrawly, glittery name "Chris" that my 37 year old made when he was 4 or 5, hand-quilted wallhangings stitched ever so lovingly by my mother, the dingy, faded angel-haired angel that adorned the top of my husband's tree when he was but a small boy--some 60 years ago--after weeks of preparation for celebrating the birth of our Savior with all of my children and grandchildren, everything was in place--finally--
Well, almost everything. I didn't have anything to go in the middle of my rather large square-shaped coffee table. And I was out of decorations--
It was then that I did what I learned to do so many years ago when "I" was out of ideas. Actually this works better (smile) if you do it at the beginning rather than at the End--I sat down on one end of the sofa and said, "Lord, you are the great creator, the great decorator, what would you put in the middle of my coffee table?" In a matter of seconds, my mind went to all the Christmas puzzles we had worked over the years, now residing on the top shelf of my hall closet--and the idea to stack them up from largest to smallest with each succeeding box placed at a 45 degree angle to the previous--this would end up looking like a Christmas tree I thought. I almost ran to the closet--proceeded to haul them down, get them in order, and stack them on the table.
Then I remembered a very small Thomas Kincaide puzzle in the shape of a simple little house that sat on a table in the living room. I got that and placed it on top of the stack--it added the perfect touch to my "God-created centerpiece."
Our cul-de-sac has a progressive dinner every year and this year they came to our home for dessert. I was busy serving up sweet potato pie, cherry dump cake, and chocolate pecan pie and didn't hear this conversation, but after almost everyone had gone, my next-door neighbor (who had no idea about the origin of the puzzle tree)told me that my coffee-table centerpiece was the center of the conversation with everyone, even the men commenting on its creativity.
Now to some this would seem like a very small thing but it only reinforces my belief that God cares about all the details of our lives. Our privilege is to ask--our responsibility is to listen and give thanks.
"Thank you, God, for hearing my prayer and your awesome and incredible ideas that you share so freely--help me to listen better, quicker, with a more sensitive spirit You are the centerpiece of my life."
