The Silver Anniversary Sylvania...

I can’t believe it! Diane and I are 4 months away from celebrating our 25th Wedding Anniversary and today I trashed the first appliance we ever bought together. Seeing that we have been through half a dozen microwaves, it’s hard to believe that any appliance could stand the test of time – let alone a television set. Actually, it was taken out of daily service and placed in cold storage about 2 years ago when a faltering picture tube gave everyone a sunburned glow. Yet a post-Christmas cleaning relegated the icon to depart from the premises…permanently.


It survived 3 moves, endless episodes of LA Law, E.R., Cosby and Raymond. Not to mention early childhood home videos from three children (obviously more from the first). Barney, Veggie Tales and Disney brought hours of entertainment to wondering eyes and empty minds. Rabbit ears, satellite and a couple bouts with cable made this a most versatile unit.

Now lest you think I’m memorializing the “Trojan Horse of Entertainment” … it’s a somewhat tongue-in-cheek sentimentality that marks time through the inanimate. This occasion has given me another glimpse not only into the passage of time but also into the emptiness of the temporal. On the flip side of that coin are the fulfilling blessings of everything that is eternal. Those are the lives and relationships that extend beyond the lifespan of any appliance and are definitely worth celebrating.

Even as I write this, my heart hurts for those around me: a lady in her 60’s who has been left paralyzed by invasive cancer surgery, 2 friends in their forties who are in the fight of their life for their lives right now and 3 men in mid-life who can’t seem to find a job in the midst of a thousand prayer circles.

Compartmentalizing and prioritizing “things that matter” is necessary at every stage of life. I guess for me and my TV…that is today!

THE SIZE OF MY SHOEBOX

So, how many toys under your tree were broken on Christmas morning? Not just the ones for the kids but the grownups as well?


Please pardon the intrusion, but once again it allowed me a punctuation mark on the closing sentence of 2011. Every gift in every one of 7 million shoeboxes delivered thru Operation Christmas Child will one day lose their effectiveness. That is, their material effectiveness; their spiritual value is eternal. The difference between our perspective and theirs is the price of our toys and the size of our shoeboxes. Then again, it’s the thought that counts right? Our gifts of love and acts of service are extensions of the loving hand of God into lives that need to know that love. But, it’s not just the kid in Africa or the Romanian orphan that need to know that love. It’s also the children of all ages in our communities, our churches and even under own roofs…including you and me. Here’s hoping that whatever the holidays delivered to your home will last year-long in your heart. Something about the reassuring love of God that brings joy and peace to our personal existence…the real gift that keeps on giving.