As I reflect back on this day, I see so many gifts from the Beloved…almost like the twelve days of Christmas all over again.

At the first watch of the morning my true love gave to me breakfast with my nieces and nephews and the brisk joy of being the
bus stop “mom” in the cold.

At the second watch of the morning, I came home for a second cup of coffee and sadly noticed that my two goldfish were dead. (Not a gift, but a fresh grief that fit in with something else I was contemplating later in the day.)

At the third watch of the morning, I started a time of praying following a format from The Hour That Changes the World  by Dick Eastman. He recommends twelve aspects of prayer that start and end with praise. I don’t follow this format everyday, but the twelve aspects of prayer are a challenging and thorough pattern to follow.

Lately when I observe the twelve steps, I draw a picture to record my “prayer notes.” In honor of my hobo honeymoon, I sketched a roundhouse, where trains are moved in a circle to change tracks.

I could never share all the things I gleaned today in one post. I took a trip through Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old &New Testament Words by William D. Mounce to look up the meaning of the twelve aspects of prayer. The best word I found was the Hebrew word for “confess”, which transliterates to “yada.” It made me smile because, I thought maybe God hears us say “yada, yada, yada,” when we keep coming back with the same sins to confess over and over again. Not that sin is a joke, but it did give me a giggle.

Okay, it’s getting late and to list twelve more gifts from today might get tedious for you, even though I found each one perfectly thoughtful and fitted for me.

At the twelfth watch of the evening, my true love gave to me a night to cherish. We went to our local church to worship and share communion with the congregation. I joined my sister and her four kids, who had various levels of response to the service from quiet observation to overwhelmed by the loudness to avid interest to enthusiastic dancing and jumping. The youngest niece (5) thought it great fun to dance, jump and clap to the music and the oldest (11) even joined in for awhile.

It was a joy to freely express our adoration and devotion before the Lord. On the way home, my youngest niece and I opted to walk home. She was barefoot, because her “high heels” hurt her feet, but she is NOT phased by the cold. I called her our “wee Scottish bairn.” Once we navigated the parking lot and got on the sidewalk, she started running down the hill toward her street, so I joined her. After a few hundred feet, I offered her my socks, and she put them on and took off running again, squealing: “I’m a wee Scottish bairn and a wee Scottish bairn has to do what she has to do.” And I shouted behind her, ” I love you, Loryn!” “You love God!” “You’re the best!” What a way to finish a beautiful evening abandoning ourselves to the Beloved.

Another touching moment was during communion, when she whispered loudly to me, while pointing up at the stage, “Aunt Kel, when I grow up, I want to be like that man.” She was pointing at the pastor, who was leading us in communion. I asked her later, why she wanted to be like that man. She said, “Because I want to learn about God.” What a wee delight, she is!