CHRISTMAS 2012 GREETINGS

This year, our family is giving big thanks for our new and unexpected baby!

Will came in February and that little ray of delight has been grinning ever since.  He's a chubby lightbrite to all of us.

Mike and I smile to think of our two special honors with Will...

We were asked to the ultrasound and got to peek into the serenity of Beth's womb...and then we got to be in the birthing room most of the day with Beth/Matt/Nate until getting shooed out at the last thirty minutes.

It was a privilege to be in the grandstand for both those events.

There was another baby (the One from Bethlehem) who was expected, but His grandstands were sparse.  The Messiah came silently into the very world He had created...to witnesses who smelled like the outside.  A nightshift of shepherds were in the fields when suddenly the sky became blazing with Shekinah glory and a "BEING" appeared from the heavenlies.  It's easy to imagine why they were sore afraid as then myriads of angels filled the sky. The sheep caretakers bowed low before receiving directions to the long-awaited Messiah.  Don't you know that as they ran, they wondered "why me"?

Here's a possible reason for "why them".  Ever heard of a place called The Tower of the Flock?  In Hebrew words, the place is called Migdal Eber and it is mentioned twice in Scripture.  According to Micah 4:8, the Messiah will be revealed there.  So where is this tower?

We know Bethlehem is six miles from Jerusalem and Migdal Eber is out from Bethlehem.  The flocks in those fields belonged to the temple and the sheep were born to be sold as a sacrifice.  The tower was a watchtower against predators...but it was also used as a birthing place.

The sheep were out in the fields all year long, but when the ewes were about to give birth, these shepherds (responsible for lambs without spot or blemish) brought the sheep into a limestone cave beneath the tower so they could supervise the birth.  If a little leg were to be broken, the lamb would be useless.

While we think of a low animal shelter with smelly service animals to be an unlikely birthplace for El Elyon (the Most High God)...G. Campbell Morgan says this place where thousands of sacrificial sheep had been born is exactly the perfect WHERE.  And the WHO to receive the birth announcement?  Temple shepherds are just the ones to connect the dots and recognize THE Lamb of God.  Then they worshipped Him and went out praising God.

This Christmas, Mike and I are praising Him, too...as we consider our salt-and-light grownup kids with kids of their own.

We adore the two grandboys up here in Fayetteville and the three grandgirls down in Little Rock.

Matt is at his post as junior high principal and this year everyone was reminded of the responsibility of that position.  Brad has finished his first sixteen months of running his own business managing mouths up on ninth floor of Medical Towers I beside Baptist Hospital.  Beth and Laura are staying home with the two youngest, while one is a kindergartener and the other two are second-graders.

Life spins by but we grab onto each blessing, the latest of which was running a six-day GrandCamp for Lily in November when her parents and sisters went to NYC.  God gave us oomph.

Merry Christmas with our love and best wishes to each of you in 2013.  The front door here is open and the upstairs is waiting for any Razorback/Crystal Bridges/leaf peeping traveler.  Or, come for any reason.  And...Happy Birthday, Jesus!

P.S.  Last night after our family Christmas Eve meal/gift exchange, Nate was buzzed.  He hatched a plan to intercept Santa by spending the night in his treehouse/fort that he and his Dad made.  His mother mentioned the plummeting temperature and winds, but his daddy said boys need adventure.

P.S.S.  When you get time, here's a  LINK  to a sweet, three minute Christmas video about our long-expected Jesus, whose story started even before time began.  See how many characters you can name!

GUN CONTROL

Dear Vice President Biden,
It will be ridiculous for your task force to suggest any solutions that have not worked in the past.  And it's equally ridiculous to do nothing.

Americans want practical, workable, effective answers to Newtown. This will take some real wisdom and not just political ideology.

God, save us from the posers.

WHAT HASN'T WORKED?
Gun bans.  See LINK.

Criminals don't obey the law and Americans have the constitutional right to bear arms.  LINK and  LINK.

WHAT HAS WORKED?
1.  Conceal carry laws.  See LINK.  Anyone can cite any study when making their argument.  But when facts buttress the argument, it earns notice.

Last week there was a shooting at the Clackamas Town Center in Oregon.  CNN reported extensively on the incident but left out a cogent point.  The shooter took his life when police confirmed that a concealed-carry person pointed a gun to the man's head.  LINK.

Here are a few other instances of concealed-carry weapons halting violence:
• A 1997 high school shooting in Pearl, Miss., was halted by the school's vice principal after he retrieved the Colt .45 he kept in his truck.
• A 1998 middle school shooting ended when a man living next door heard gunfire and apprehended the shooter with his shotgun.
• A 2002 terrorist attack at an Israeli school was quickly stopped by an armed teacher and a school guard.
• A 2002 law school shooting in Grundy, Va., came to an abrupt conclusion when students carrying firearms confronted the shooter.
• A 2007 mall shooting in Ogden, Utah, ended when an armed off-duty police officer intervened.
• A 2009 workplace shooting in Houston, Texas, was halted by two coworkers who carried concealed handguns.
• A 2012 church shooting in Aurora, Colo., was stopped by a member of the congregation carrying a gun.

2.  Gun control laws such as a waiting period and background checks.  Proof?  Adam Lanza tried to buy a gun, but was dissuaded because of the background check.

Adam's guns were legally bought and registered to a lady with a unblemished record.  How can we not sell to people who MIGHT have family members who haven't done anything in the past but MIGHT go ballistic because they have mental health issues?  Ms. Lanza lived as a single lady and as such, had a right to the security that guns would afford.  At the same time, she also had a huge responsibility to keep them secure.  That was especially true when she saw his downward spiral and verbalized to her friends "I'm losing him".

If the present gun laws and regs are not being enforced, what makes us think new ones would work?

WHAT ARE THE OBVIOUS THREE COMPONENTS OF A SOLUTION?

GOOD PARENTING

No one can expect to be submerged in a video game world of violence and push the button over and over to kill someone without losing sensitivity.  Electronic "games" sharpen a short attention span and the competitive nature of boys, while the isolation destroys healthy social interaction.  What you spend your time thinking about is what you are becoming.

In Ms. Lanza's defense, I have not lived in her shoes and can give her the benefit of the doubt that she loved her son and tried to do the best for him.  I know when school didn't work, she brought him home to homeschool.  Mothers die a thousand times when they hear the words "no one is my friend".

But in that basement, Adam drew farther and farther away from reality.  We define success as being smart but this child shows that having brains is NOT the celebration that we make of it.  Adam was so smart that he did college courses at sixteen, but smart didn't make him happy.  Relating to people would have made him happy and that leads to the second part of the solution.

MENTAL HEALTH

I'm over my head here...not knowing how to translate this important piece of the puzzle into law.  Somehow Ms. Lanza needed an option that was missing from our system.  

TWEAK GUN CONTROL LAWS

A compromise would be to work on limiting magazines with 30 rounds.  You say..."hunters certainly don't need thirty shots".  That's right.  They are also not necessary for a one-on-one house invasion.  But if there is a crowd (like in the LA riots or a group of people who decide to come for your property/life), you need to make the first five rifle shots count.

WHERE'S GOD IN ALL OF THIS?

I'm hearing people say God killed those children because they reason He is either all powerful or He is not.  No!  God loves those precious children and a shooting was not His plan for their lives.  He also loves Adam Lanza and that boy's plan was different to God's plan.  Is God always in control?  Yes.  Some of what happens in this fallen world includes God's permissive will.  But it's comforting to know that those first graders are around His throne now and no longer know the tears of this world.

A long time ago in Eden's garden, ANOTHER Adam chose not to believe/trust God.  That rebellion wasn't God plan, but Adam and Eve followed different leadership because they had a will which was given full head.  We have that same option.  Part of the reason that God gives us choice is to show us what we are like.  We need Him; we just don't seem to know it.

Adam Lanza needed God's leadership.  You may not think you're in his "category" because you've never killed anyone.  Then you hear the Bible say we murder with our words and we kill because we intend to malign.  We also are surprised to hear Him say that all sin is sin to Him.  We like to put sin into categories, but He doesn't.  He says if you keep the whole law but fail in one, you become guilty of all.  He sees sin as rebellion against His person (the ungodly) and His laws (the unrighteous).

So don't fault a loving God for giving us our way.  Pure love is when God sees me spit in His eye and then cares enough to pull back the veil so I can see how my defiance looks from His side.  Grace is the agent that moves the veil so that my spiritual sight can bring repentance.  Then the FULLNESS of His grace provides Coverage available at the ready to offload defiant heart choices.  Jesus is that coverage.

You think God did not weep for the children in Connecticut?  On that awful day, parents sent their child to school without any expectation that they would die.  But God intentionally (from before the foundation of the world) sent His Son to die.  God knows their pain very well.

When the dust settled in Connecticut, neither the innocents nor Adam nor his mother had any choices left.  Satan is the enemy who comes to steal and kill...and he stole Christmas joy from the whole nation with his murderous acts.  But the teacher who hid her students, Vicky Soto, made a costly, Christ-like choice and gave her life for others.  

Now America must make some wise choices.  We can tweak gun laws.  We can beef up mental health options.  We can urge good parenting.  But a nation in moral decline will continue to come unraveled.  So just know this:

IN THIS WORLD, THE SINGLE GREATEST PLACE OF SAFETY IS TO RUN TO JESUS.