Celebrating Jesus

On the way out of church yesterday someone wished me a Merry Christmas and then asked, "Is that appropriate to say to you this year?" Through tears I told him that it was. We miss John terribly and nothing seemed quite right all day. But Christmas is still Christmas. It means all the more that Jesus, the very God of very God, took on a human body as a helpless baby to rescue us from all the things that cause us so much pain right now. That truth adds joy to our tears. My first tears yesterday were as the following was read during the service yesterday (with a few changes that I made).

 

In Genesis Jesus is the Ram at Abraham’s altar
In Exodus He’s the Passover Lamb
In Leviticus He’s the High Priest
In Numbers He’s the Cloud by day 

and the Pillar of Fire by night
In Deuteronomy He’s the City of our refuge
In Joshua He’s the Scarlet Thread out Rahab’s window
In Judges He is our Judge
In Ruth He is our Kinsman Redeemer
In 1st and 2nd Samuel He’s our Trusted Prophet
And in Kings and Chronicles He’s our Reigning King
In Ezra He’s our Faithful Scribe
In Nehemiah He’s the Rebuilder of everything that is broken
And in Esther He is Mordecai sitting faithfully at the gate
In Job He’s our Redeemer that ever liveth
In Psalms He is my Shepherd and I shall not want
In Proverbs and Ecclesiastes He’s our Wisdom
And in the Song of Solomon He’s the Beautiful Bridegroom
In Isaiah He’s the Suffering Servant
In Jeremiah and Lamentations He is the Weeping Prophet
In Ezekiel He’s the Wonderful Four-Faced Man
And in Daniel He is the Fourth Man in the midst of a fiery furnace
In Hosea He is my Love that is forever faithful
In Joel He baptizes us with the Holy Spirit
In Amos He’s our Burden Bearer
In Obadiah our Savior
And in Jonah He is the Great Foreign Missionary that takes the Word of God into all the world
In Micah He is the Messenger with beautiful feet
In Nahum He is the Avenger
In Habakkuk He is the Watchman that is ever praying for revival
In Zephaniah He is the Lord mighty to save
In Haggai He is the Restorer of our lost heritage
In Zechariah He is our Fountain
And in Malachi He is the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings.

In Matthew He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God
In Mark He is the Miracle Worker
In Luke He’s the Son of Man
And in John He is the Bread of Life
In Acts He is the Shining Light at appears to Saul on the road to Damascus
In Romans He is our Justifier
In 1st Corinthians our Resurrection
In 2nd Corinthians our Sin Bearer
In Galatians He Redeems us from the law
In Ephesians He is our Unsearchable Riches
In Philippians He supplies our every need
And in Colossians He’s our Hope of Glory
In 1st and 2nd Thessalonians He is our Soon Coming King
In 1st and 2nd Timothy He is the Mediator between God and man
In Philemon He is a Friend that sticks closer than a brother
And in Hebrews He’s the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant
In James it is the Lord that heals the sick
In 1st and 2nd Peter He is the Chief Shepherd
In 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John it is Jesus who has the tenderness of love
In Jude He is the Lord coming with 10,000 saints
And in Revelation, He is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings-the Alpha and Omega, Great I AM

Merry Christmas to each of you and may the following year be filled Jesus' presence and the joy that brings.

UPS

I've been working at the UPS airport sorting center for about a month and a half. I start at 4:45 am and we are usually done by 7. I've been moved around a bit but that has given me a pretty good idea of how the operation runs, at least on the inside. Three planes come in each morning. One or two of them have already landed and most of their cargo is inside by the time we arrive. The goal is to have it all sorted and on the right truck or plane by 7.

For the first couple of weeks I was on unload. It's a good workout to take everything from inside the cans and put them on a belt. We are supposed to set each package on the belt. In reality, the only packages that are set on the belt are the ones that are too heavy to toss.

From there the packages go to the primary sorting area where all the packages get sent to one of the 5 outgoing belts. This is the one area where I have not worked but I've heard rumors that you have to pass a zip code test to work there.  The bags of envelopes and smaller packages are dumped into chutes in the small sort area where I did work for a couple of weeks. The packages are sorted into small boxes (of which there are 40 to chose from - though several of them are double.) I got a lesson in Minnesota geography. For each sorter there are two baggers who double check that every package is headed to the right place, put them in bags and tag it before sending the bag to the primary sorting area. Baggers get paid an extra dollar an hour because they have to be rapid and accurate. They are the only ones whose miss-sorts can be traced back to them. While I was working in that area, I was often sent over to help load the truck headed for Rochester. The main loader needs to scan each one and get them loaded in an orderly and compact manner. When the packages come at a relentless pace it can be really hard to keep up without help.

Last week I was moved to one of the outgoing belts. I'm at the beginning of the belt so I'm to make sure all the addresses are facing up and sorted to one side of the belt or the other so it is easier for those down the line to pull the ones they are responsible for. I'm to pull the ones that go to International Falls and Grand Rapids, scan them and load them into separate cans. Neither can gets very full so I don't have to be very careful about how it is packed. Bags go in one corner with the heaviest packages on another side as they need to be loaded into the plane first. The only other thing that needs to be kept separate is anything with hazardous materials or dry ice. The men I work with have been helpful in teaching me the ropes and when I miss a package they just bring it back to me. The challenge is that my cans are the first that need to go and there is always a flurry of activity at the end. I've had to fill out the paperwork as it's being pulled away and once there was no time to enter in the code for a couple of packages that wouldn't scan so they just got thrown in.

Once the cans go, we bundle up and go outside to load the small feeder planes. This was my favorite time of the work day when I first started since we were able to the sunrise. Now it's still dark when we finish. I'm looking forward to the end of January when the days are a bit longer and we can see the sunrise again. During the winter, there is an added job of "pulling cords." All the small planes are plugged in which means lots of yards of extension cords need to be pulled back to the cart behind the generator and hung up. Those cords get heavy but it's a great way to quickly warm up the hands.

I'm enjoying my work and think I've found a spot on the purple belt. I'm usually in bed by 8 so I can get 8 hours of sleep. The bummer is that my body has gotten used to waking up early so even on Sunday I'm awake before 5.

Home Stretch

It's been a long semester. It might have something to do with my intense summer of classes. It probably has a to do with taking anatomy which is really like taking two classes in one. Besides there being lots of material to learn, it's pretty dry. It's hard to learn certain facts when I don't really know why I need to learn them. My professor likes to test us on the embryonic origin of whatever particular organ we are studying. That may be important for a few people but I have a hard time seeing myself using those little tidbits of information as an occupational therapist. Besides all that, the long semester also has something to do with John's death. I'm just haven't been very motivated to study and it takes longer for things to sink in. All that to say, I'm glad to only have three days left. Tomorrow afternoon I have my Anatomy final and on Wednesday afternoon I'll take my Statistics final. I'm looking forward to the break from class the opportunity to work through the pile of paperwork on my desk and read something besides a textbook.

Thinking about Christmas

After a busy week of studying it's been good to take a break today. I'm sitting in front of our Christmas tree with a cup of hot cider. Everything outside is white. I heard Christmas music playing at the grocery store this week so it must be getting close to Christmas. Some of those songs talk about how this is the best time of year or how the little kid in us tends to come out in December. Christmas is a family time with all the family traditions. No wonder it's a tough time for families when someone is missing. It doesn't feel like the best time of year. In a sense I don't feel like celebrating at all. How can family time be celebrated when a place at the table is empty?

Last night I went with some friends to the Ausberg College Advent Vespers service. The first song we sang together is one of my favorites, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. The first verse calls for Emmanuel to come ransom us who "mourn in lonely exile here." My mind went to Romans 8 where Paul talks about how we groan and the whole creation groans with us as we wait for our redemption. The older I've gotten, the more I've experienced what it means to groan in this body living in this sin filled world. John's death has added new meaning and depth to the reality of my groaning and the feeling of being in a lonely exile.

It amazes me that Jesus chose to become Emmanuel, God with us. He willingly came to this sin filled world. He joined in our groaning and mourning. He entered into the human condition and that included weeping at a friend's grave. I think he knew what it was to lose a father since there is no mention of Joseph beyond the Christmas story. Jesus came to change our destiny from death to life. He came to "disperse the gloomy clouds of night and death's dark shadows put to flight." And he accomplished what he came to do. Death couldn't hold him in the grave. He rose victorious over our worst enemy, never to die again. And he's just the first. All who put their hope in him will also be raised to live with him forever in the perfect world for which we were made.

That gives me reason to celebrate. That is why my family can celebrate Christmas. There will be tears and sorrow because John is not with us. But deeper than the grief is the confident hope that our Redeemer has come and will come again and set all things right. The story of Christmas is why we can be joyful in the midst of tears.