Clearly

“What is the name of the cabin you’re going to for Christmas?” my daughter, Julie, was asking. After stopping at our younger daughter’s home in Georgia, our plans are to go on to Gatlinburg with her family, and Julie’s family will join us there on Christmas day. I told her I couldn’t think of the name of it right then, but it would come to me and I would send her the link so she could see it.

After racking my brain, some catchy name like “Ain’t Misbehavin’” kept popping into my mind, but that sounded like an old movie, so I discounted the thought. Then today I was talking with our son, Jamie, and told him what I was trying to remember. “I think it’s something like 'Moosin’ Around',” he suggested, recalling when his sister stayed there last year. Well, he wasn’t much help.

Then as I was riding along in the car awhile ago, “Ain’t Moosebehavin'" popped into my head! "That’s it!” I laughed. A play on words, and I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. But when I wasn’t concentrating so hard, my subconscious put it together. A little later, as we got out at a store, I noticed a car tag and tried to puzzle out the name on it, “RUOK". “Is that supposed ot say Roark?” I wondered. When I realized what it meant, Howard asked me what I was laughing about. “That tag,” I pointed, “It means, Are you okay?”

Language is supposed to convey a message, but sometimes things can go awry. Jamie told me he had decided to pick up a gift for Tammy, his wife, although they had already made a major purchase as a Christmas present for both of them. Tammy had walked away to another part of the store, and Jamie asked the clerk if they had any more of a certain item, a kooky gift for a laugh, that he wanted to surprise her with. He looked up to see Tammy coming back just in time to hear the clerk say loudly on the radio, “Do we have any more of the DQ toy home Blizzard Makers?” He said they did, and now he and Tammy both knew it.

As we were singing carols at our women’s group Christmas party the other night, the song, Silver Bells, was suggested. I told my neighbor sitting next to me that I had sung that since I was a child, and only recently realized that the bells the song refers to are the bells rung by the Salvation Army at their collection buckets! I had just imagined silver church bells or holiday bells pealing the joy of the season.

In our Sunday night Roundtable, the question was brought up about the difference in meaning of the word “Abba,” and “Father”. While most understood “Abba” as the more intimate term a child might use, like “Daddy,” instead of “Father,” some had never thought of it that way. Galatians 4:6-7 says, “And because you are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore, thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” Spoken clearly, with no room for misunderstanding. What a great Reason to celebrate Christmas, even with all the mishaps, mistakes and mix-ups that make it so memorable.