The Coolest Gifts Ever

I took my last 1/2 day of vacation for the year this afternoon. (Probably good to use that thing up!) I stopped by the grocery store (twice), worked around the house, and got in a 4.6-mile run. It was a bit snowy and windy for running!

This Christmas, I received two very special gifts. I've learned that I'm kind of an emotional guy and both of these resulted in some seriously watery eyes. The first came in the form of a totally unexpected Christmas card. In this modern era of instant communication, Christmas cards almost seem to be a ritual of the past. Yet, I still send them - and receive them. This year, an unexpected card ended up in my mailbox and included some words that were so encouraging that I was truly awestruck. The second gift came in the form of a tin of cookies. On Tuesday, I sat down at my desk and right in front of me was this tin of cookies with a card on top. My first thought was, "How the heck did someone get into my office and leave a tin of cookies?" However, I read the accompanying card and, again, just sat their awestruck.

Too often, I find it easy to slip down that dangerous slope of sadness and woefulness - to question what the heck is going on - to wonder if this thing called kingdom-building really is possible - to struggle with a sense of purpose. These two gifts provided a huge reality check that there is a larger purpose - that other things are going on that most of the time I don't even see.

Happy New Year!!

Todd

Send Your Rain

Wow, can't believe it is already 11:04 PM. I went to a family gathering in Mishawaka after band practice and need to get to bed soon! However, I just wanted to write a quick reflection about band practice tonight. We sang this beautiful song, Send Your Rain. The holidays have definitely been joy-filled. Yet sometimes, they almost seem hectic and crazy - just going from one party to another, going to packed shopping facilities, dealing with crazy weather. You probably know the drill. Tonight, though, in a darkened room, we sang quietly, worshipfully this song.

Send your rain, oh Lord
Send your rain, oh Lord
Send your rain, oh Lord
to your people

May your kingdom come
and your will be done
on Earth as it is in Heaven

This is basically the song and their is repetition of the verses.

Yet, in the midst of what sometimes has been a chaotic holiday season, this song proved to be a powerful reminder... of Jesus and his kingdom.

The Sunday Afternoon Post

Wow, is anyone else just pretty much shocked right now at the weather over the last week. Just a few days ago we had frigid temperatures and ice covered everything. Today, the sunshine is out and provided for a second day of running. Yesterday, it was warm enough to break out shorts. Yep, I wore shorts almost all day on Dec. 27. I even got a few smiles in the parking lot from... ah geez, I'll stop right now.

Yesterday, Troy and I had an interesting experience in the Meijer parking lot. I tend to park the Cavalier pretty far out in parking lots. There is a two-fold reason for this practice. First, I like the extra walk that this provides. Second, it is just less hectic to park further away from the door. After a quick stop at Meijer, we headed back out to the car - a red cavalier relatively far out in the parking lot. We got in and I put my bag in the back-seat. Then, it dawned on me, "This isn't my car!" I quickly turned around and grabbed the bag and we made a mad dash away from the car!

Last night, we had the Huff family Christmas. Years ago, Grandma made Merry Christmas bingo. This has been around as long as I can remember and now we play this with white elephant gifts instead of doing the more formal gift exchange. This year, it struck me how much effort and love that Grandma put into making this game. Guess what? We still enjoy it today - our second Christmas without her. I kind of wonder if this is a little gift that she left with us. Last Christmas, Dad wrote a poem and lit a candle to give Grandma some physical presence at our family gathering. I arrived late to Christmas this year. After grabbing some food and a bingo card, I settled in at the table. A moment later I realized that the the light of this candle shone right in front of me. The picture above kind of startled me because the candle has this special coating that reflected the flash and made the candle look totally different. I thought about this some last night and realized that things are not always as they appear. Perhaps this is another gift from Grandma.

Under Armour

My brothers gave me some awesome gifts. Chad gave me an Instant Canopy (tailgaters beware - we are going to a new level next fall!), Bob Dylan and Beatles CDs, and Jesus Wants to Save Christians by Rob Bell. Troy gave me a Saint Joe mug and an Under Armour sweatshirt (he still has 3 more Christmases of Saint Joe gear - can't wait!).

I've never understood the Under Armour hype and thought it had to be over-rated and too expensive. However, I tried out this sweatshirt today on a run and was pretty impressed. First, this thing is so light it feels like I don't have anything on (I know, that sounds pretty scary). Second, the hood is the perfect size. I have a big head and have never have had a hood that really fits right. Third, it kept the wind from penetrating. Fourth, it kept the sweat away. I am a major sweater so this was pretty surprising. I'm not sure where the sweat went. Normally, when I run with a sweatshirt, it gets drenched. Not this sweatshirt.

My brothers rock and picked out some great gifts!

Of the Tablecloth and Jesus

Whew, the day after Christmas. Troy and I had planned to head off to Chicago this morning on the Southshore. Brilliant plan. Avoid road traffic by taking the train. However, there was one small problem. We couldn't get to the train! Ice completely covered the road. Being the stubborn Huffs that we are, however, we did attempt the trip. We did not make much past Community Gospel church before encountering a roadblock. Already running behind, we knew at that point that we would not make the 8:48 AM train and nixed the trip. Maybe we'll try again on St. Patrick's Day (seriously, as Pumas we can march in the St. Patrick's day parade!). Upon arriving back at my house, we hunkered down for some serious work - watching Harry Potter Prisoner of Azkaban. I haven't watched a movie at 9:00 AM well maybe ever. So today ended up being a pretty relaxing day and we'll probably head up to Mishawaka tomorrow.





Rewind to Christmas Eve night. One of the traditions that we have at Grandpa and Grandma Wise's house is the tablecloth. Each Christmas Eve dinner, every guest must add a drawing, phrase, etc, to the tablecloth. We have years and years worth of drawings and have expanded to two tablecloths. Well, I went to Grandpa and Grandma's house and then left to come back to Bremen for church at Horizon. After church, I headed back to Grandpa and Grandma's house. While driving, I thought about what I would draw. Jim has talked several times about two spheres, Heaven and Earth, that he saw in Europe. So I decided to draw two circles slightly overlapping to represent this connection between Heaven and Earth with the birth of Jesus. To clarify the drawing, I wrote "Heaven" and "Earth" in the circles.

Later that night while with the fam at the Grace Christmas Eve service, I thought more about these simple circles and was startled by something else. In my mind, I rotated the combined circles 90 degrees and peered at the overlap region. I traced the overlap and smiled (I know that I was smiling because one of the singers from the praise team came up to me after the service and said that it was nice to see a big smile in the congregation).
Situated neatly between Heaven and Earth is this symbol, the Ichthus. In some circles, this "fish" is a symbol for Jesus. I really like this drawing of Heaven, Earth, and Jesus. I tried to visual the drawing in 3D and all of the sudden the Ichthus is like this small portal (like a wardrobe, painting, or garden door in the Chronicles of Narnia) between Heaven and Earth.

So I'm sure that this is probably not a new drawing, but it is pretty crazy that even a tablecloth can be a remember of Jesus.

A New Look

Yesterday, Trent gave a Photoshop lesson that resulted in the new blog banner. This led to giving this blog a whole new look that even required getting in and tweaking the HTML. (There are a couple new features including verse of day and chemistry webelements.) As I was working with Trent, I thought a little bit about how easy it is to get into a rut. It is easy to just let the world go by and kind of lose track of new technologies. It is easy to just do the same things over and over and over again. It would be easy to just go to work and just go through the motions. It would be easy to go to church and just kind of pretend to worship. However, there is so much out there. I really hope to do some more work in Photoshop and create some new backgrounds and other artistic elements for the Powerpoints and Copperfield. This could help take our internal and external communication to another level and that would be exciting!

Well, today is Christmas Eve. That means tomorrow is Christmas - the day Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus. I like to think of this as God in the Bod - God entering into this world in an entirely new way. God entered this world as a man - Jesus - who experienced pain, suffering, love, friendship, anger, abandonment, betrayal, compassion. Jesus - God - entered this world in a new, personal, relational way.

In Jesus, we get a new look at God.

In Jesus, we get a new look.

Merry Christmas!

Sledding

So last night, I had this idea. I'm not sure if any of you have noticed, but the ground is covered in ice. That means that the sledding hills are covered in ice, too. I started thinking down the list of people who might be interested in sledding. This afternoon, I called Tim. He sounded a little hesitant and then remembered that he had stats at the basketball game tonight. However, the game ended up being cancelled and we headed out to locate sleds in B-town.

Family Dollar - NO

Dollar General - NO

A bit despondent, we looked and beheld a sign hanging outside Koontz Hardware.

Sleds

Alright!

After getting some warm clothes, we headed over to Sunnyside park. Sure enough, the hill is covered in ice. It was awesome. We could sled all the way across the soccer field to the parking lot. (Actually, my red racer made it 3/4 away across the parking lot.) Because of the sleet, we stopped by my house for safety glasses and goggles. This is definitely a benefit of working with chemicals! Off to Shadyside park for more sledding and a bit of a snowball fight. I asked Tim why he sounded a bit hesitant when I first asked him about going sledding.

He said that it just seemed a bit spontaneous.

Spontaneous.

I like the sound of that.