I read Zechariah 10:1 this morning, and I was struck by the plea to God’s people to ask the Lord for rain in season.

The plea says that without God’s goodness, there are no storm clouds, and without storm clouds, there is no rain, and without rain, there are no lush green pastures. I thought about that sequence and then I thought about it in reverse order…

Lush green pastures = rain = storm clouds = God’s creative goodness

Most of the time, we want to avoid the storms of life at any cost. We don’t like clouds very much, silver linings or not. We want “blue skies, nothing but blue skies.” And we miss the great truth that a life lived with no threat of storms means a life lived with no lush growth. It means drought. It means a life robbed of, well…life.

One of my heroes once said that there are three kinds of people in the world: those who are in the middle of a storm, those who have just come through a storm, and those for whom the storm is on the way. I know that storms are not pleasant (witness the destruction caused by the Florida hurricanes last summer). I know that storms disrupt lives and destroy property. I know that storms are often frightening.

But I need to know that God is the Master of the storm, and that His clouds bring refreshing rain to my parched life.

God, help me learn from the storm clouds. Refresh me and your people with your rain in its season. Bring new and lush growth in our lives.

…and what the kiddos don’t know! Thanks Randy, for this, the best Christmas post I’ve seen this year!

OK, so the big day is almost over. Pretty uneventful, which in the big sceme of things ain’t so bad.

A couple of observations…

No matter how rotten a day, week, month, or even year it’s been, there’s nothing that Martha’s boiled shrimp and Kentucky Derby pie and Frances’s orange rolls and breakfast casserole won’t fix! Thanks, Moms!

Saw the “26-letter browsing personality” over at Will Samson’s blog:

Inspired by Tim Samoff’s post, I put together my 26-letter browser personality. Here’s how to do it. In the address bar of your web browser clear whatever is there and then type in the letter “a”. See what comes up. Then clear that and type in the letter “b”. Repeat for each letter

First of all, I didn’t get too many results with Firefox, since I have it set where it doesn’t save any History or cache or whatever. So I switched over to Internet Explorer, which I generally only use for Windows Updates. Here’s what I found…

A: ARIN WHOIS Database Search

B: Blogger

C: Just Charlie: My blog, such as it is�

D: Design Within Reach

E: My E: Drive (removable flash thingy�Christmas Eve service PowerPoint)

F: Free Republic

G: Gmail

H: Hanson Carter�s blog

I: Internet Explorer (brings up my Start Page)

J: No Js

K: Kennesaw State University (�The Boy and His School�)

L: Local News Sources (a Favorites folder)

M: MARTA

N: North American Mission Board (SBC)

O: OSCAR (Transfer Information for Georgia Tech)

P: PaidContent.org

Q: Queso.com

R: RapidForum.com

S: Symantec Security Response (where you go to download your virus definition updates)

T: Turnaround Concepts (another Favorites folder)

U: Universalis

V: Vicki (my wife�s Favorites folder)

W: The Weather Channel (my Start page)

X: No Xs (not even in Texas�thanks George Strait!)

Y: No Ys

Z: No Zs

Veddy interestink…

Ol’ Merle was right on the money…

If we make it through December

Everything’s gonna be all right I know

It’s the coldest time of winter

And I shiver when I see the fallin’ snow

If we make it through December

I got plans of bein’ in a warmer town come summer time

Maybe even California

If we make it through December we’ll be fine

Somewhere along the way, Scrooge crept up on me again this year…two years in a row…not good! Not good at all! The usual beginning-with-Labor-Day Christmas music extravaganza actually kind of went the way of the bluebird about Thanksgiving or the day after, and it hasn’t been the same since.

It was as though Christmas sneaked up on me really fast. Didn’t budget my time or money enough to make it what it ought to be. Throw in a little triple-threat transformation effort (self, family, church) and there you go…

So somehow, I’m going through the motions. I know it’s all about peace, love, goodwill to men and all that stuff. I know the Kid in the Manger came for all of us so we can get to Dad. I appreciate all that…I really do! I know it’s all about family and fellowship and all that stuff. I appreciate all that…I do! But right about now, just after 11:00 on Christmas Eve 2004, I’ll be just as happy to see February 2005. Or April. Or whatever…

If we make it through December we’ll be fine

I don’t know and I don’t care.

(Who cares about apathy?)

Here’s a little gift list to prime the pump…

Oh…I’m a tad partial to #7. See, I’ll settle for less than the most expensive. I have simple tastes. On second thought, it would be kind of hard to put Home Depot stuff in the back of the Lamborghine. I’ll guess I’ll keep the truck!

Ah, yes…the Windham Hill Winter’s Solstice series! That’s what’ll be in my CD player all day today. I found this music back in the late 80s-early 90s, and it has remained my favorite Christmas music of all.

My father-in-law was talking a couple of weeks ago about what makes Christmas Christmas. In other words, there are some things that happen – in your family, in the culture at large, on TV, in our musical choices – that say it really is Christmas! For me, besides the Windham Hill stuff (which comes out on Labor Day at my house!), I guess it would include such favorites as:

A Charlie Brown Christmas
Miracle on 34th Street
A Christmas Story
The Nutcracker at the Fabulous Fox
Advent Wreath
Greenery/lights on the house
Wassail punch
Eggnog latte
Celtic Christmas

And so on…

What’s on your list of Christmas favorites?