A Covid Christmas

Lemon Park lights in Pratt were just what the "doctor" ordered.

Covid-19 has taken some of the "Ho, ho, ho!" out of the holiday season. But visiting the Lemon Park lights was a pandemic-approved activity.

For nearly 30 years, Pratt's Lemon Park has been transformed during the holiday season. The festive display wasn't part of my growing-up years on a farm north of Pratt (because I'm old!). However, when our kids were in middle school and high school sports, we often took a sashay through Lemon Park after December ballgames at Skyline.

This year, there was no annual Christmas in the Park to kick off the Lemon Park holiday season because of the coronavirus pandemic. However, coordinator Deb Goyen told The Pratt Tribune that more than 450 cars went through the park the first evening it was open.

As we inched our way through Lemon Park one evening last week, there were plenty of cars - and even a motorized bicycle - taking in the one-mile circuit.  (We did our part to boost participation: I think we drove through the park three times and then got out and walked in several locations for a closer view of some of the displays.)

Lucy & Schroeder were added to the display this year with a donation by Larrison Mortuary. Seems apt this year!

My memories of the park as a child were as a stop on our family's Memorial Day tour. It was where we met my Grandma and Grandpa Leonard and her sister, Helen (and Mike), for a picnic before our annual cemetery tour. 

The Lemon Park Lights Christmas tradition started in 1992, with 15 to 20 lighted Christmas displays, all the result of a Deb Goyen-idea approved by Lemon Park’s George Lemon. Today, the park becomes home to more than 150 whimsical, colorful displays.

The early merchants and Pratt business-owners who believed in the concept of a free, drive-through public light display included Stanion Electric, The Peoples Bank, Emprise Bank, City of Pratt, Wal-Mart and employees, Dillons, Lemon family, Pilot Club, Pratt Regional Medical Center, Dillons employees, First National Bank, Beta Sigma Phi Sorority, Kiwanis, Trand, Inc. and the PHS Class of 1932, Deb told The Tribune.

Pratt is known for its "Hot" and "Cold" water powers, so this was a nod to that claim to fame.

In 2020, more than 200 sponsors and supporters continue to support the Lemon Park Lights tradition, a free experience for those who wish to make the drive to Lemon Park or walk the lighted sidewalks after dark for the full effect.

A donation box is provided for those who wish to contribute to electrical and maintenance costs, but all labor to replace and replenish bulbs and set up the displays each year is done by volunteers.

 

The Lemon Park Lights are on for all to enjoy, every evening at dusk, along with The Twelve Days of Christmas lights at Sixth Street Park, from now until January 3 in Pratt.

Several of the displays were added as memorials to Prattans. One of the new displays this year honors Deb's dad, Carter Barker. (He was my Sunday School teacher at Pratt First United Methodist Church, so he was pretty special to me, too.)

The new display is a  replica of Carter's old Studebaker truck. (I also noticed the purple lights on a nearby evergreen tree. I'm sure that was by design as well. Carter was a big K-State fan.)

They added a farm scene in 1995 to reflect Pratt and the surrounding area as an agricultural community. I loved the cowboy and the Santa on a tractor in that area. 

 

Randy's favorite display was the dragon (or Loch Ness Monster) in the water.

 Every time we made a circuit of the park, it seemed someone was stopped there, taking a photo, so I guess he wasn't alone in his choice.

One of my favorites this year was the Peace on Earth display, maybe because we so desperately need it.

Another of my favorites has a family connection, but I didn't realize it until later, when I started checking out some of the history of the displays via Lemon Park Lights' Facebook page.

A relative - the late Charlie Neelly from Mullinville - built the arches, which were installed in Lemon Park in 1995.

Volunteer Ron Miller added the candy to the first arch several years later, and then computerized the display, making it different every time you travel through the Candy Cane Lane.

My email devotional yesterday morning made me think about the symbolism of those colorful lights packed into Lemon Park and how they are a perfect representation of Advent, this time of waiting in the Christian year - maybe even more so during this pandemic.

The prayer said this:

God, Thank you for what is just around the corner. 

In a season filled with the longest, darkest nights, 

I await the coming of the most beautiful Light.

***

If you are within driving distance to Pratt, I recommend the Lemon Park Lights for your holiday season, too.  

Peace vs. Hatred

Advent wreath at Susanna Wesley UMC - Photo from their Facebook page

I sent this text to my family Sunday morning (December 8) after the girls and I arrived for worship at their Topeka church:

Irony of the morning: Peace candle is lit for Advent at church. Protestors from Westboro Baptist Church stand across the street as we arrive. Part of Advent litany talked about the hatred in the world. Thankful that Kinley didn't see them on the way into the church.

Jill says the protestors have been there before, though their presence is sporadic and had never coincided with one of my Sundays in Topeka.

Frankly, I wish my record of not seeing them had stayed intact. However, I've continued to think about the juxtaposition of hate vs. love and peace. So maybe it was an Advent message I was meant to ponder.

The Advent candle litany said, in part:

Because hatred is still so strong, because so many swords have not yet been beaten into plowshares, we light a candle of peace. May the light from this candle overwhelm the world. May the light from this candle say to all that God's peace is coming on earth as it already is in heaven! 

In his sermon that morning, Pastor Andrew talked about the preparations they, as a young family, made to get their home ready for Christmas. He talked about shuffling furniture to make room for the tree and then unwrapping the ornaments.

When I think about the tree, I also think about our lives - reflecting back on the things past or looking forward to the things to come ahead. What will be unexpectedly beautiful? What will break by accident? What events will occur in which we need to find our place?

His reference to shattered ornaments took me back to our own Hanging of the Greens at Stafford UMC in late November. As I made my way through the church foyer that day, a dad was sweeping up the remnants of a glass ornament. I smiled and asked him how many had succumbed this year. Only the one, he told me.

Children's tree at Stafford UMC - Children made the nativity ornaments this year in Sunday School

One broken bulb (or even two or three) is a small price to pay for involving young children in the Advent preparations - whether that's at home or at church.

Jon and Bryson shared their love of Christmas bulbs during our Hanging of the Greens event.

 Besides, sometimes, we need to be broken for Christ's light to shine through:

Blessed are the broken and cracked 
for they allow God's light 
to shine through them.

Unattributed

Yes, we are broken. The world is broken. Even if there aren't protestors standing on a street corner, there are plenty of disagreements and differences in opinion. Just take a stroll through Facebook or Twitter and the hatred isn't hard to find.

 

On that Sunday, the Advent choir anthem said, in part:

Soon a tiny child will come

A gift from God above

To teach us all to live in peace

And fill our lives with love.

He will teach us how to love.

May that be more than just a sentiment in a Christmas anthem or a saying hung from the Christmas tree.


Advent is when we name and remember our longing for and need of forgiveness, restoration and redemption in the present day, while we wait for Christ to come again in final victory. While we wait, Jesus calls us into the world to participate in acts of compassion, preparing the way for God’s love to be known by all who need to hear the good news, having their sight restored and experiencing freedom. During this season, we prepare our own lives for one of the most transformative understandings of Jesus’ coming - his mission to set us free.

From Susanna Wesley UMC's Facebook page

***

I will take a short hiatus from blogging as Christmas approaches. Adding to an already-packed schedule as CEO of Christmas preparations around here, we are selling feeder calves this week. That adds cattle sorting and loading to the holiday mix this week.Wish us luck!

Wishing you and yours PEACE on earth and tidings of great JOY!

Dismissal with Blessing

God be in your head, and in your understanding. 

God be in your eyes, and in your looking. 

God be in your mouth, and in your speaking. 

God be in your heart, and in your thinking. 

God be in your hands, and in your working. 

God be in your feet, and in your going. 

God be at your end, and at your departing. Amen.

Pastor Nate offered those words at the end of a funeral service yesterday. He called it a "dismissal with blessing."

For me, the blessing wasn't just something "pretty" to say at the end of a funeral. Because I wanted to really think about the words, I asked him to email me a copy this morning.

They could have been the "theme song" for the entire day ... for life in the church ... for life itself. What if I approached life with God in my head, eyes, mouth, heart, hands and feet? What if that was my goal for every day? Every hour? Every minute?

I think funerals - these unique celebrations of life in the midst of death - help us to think about such things. Families and friends come together to remember. And a church family embraces those whose loss cuts to the quick - whether it's the death of the matriarch of the family, as it was during yesterday's services for Phyllis - or the death of an equally important piece of a family's puzzle.

 

A funeral dinner is symbolic of sharing that love for one another. I think the dinners are among the most important services at our church. Our family has been on the receiving end a couple of times. Having a place to gather around a meal after saying goodbye to a beloved family member is a priceless gift.

Besides helping serve, my assignments for the meal yesterday were a salad and a recipe of cheesy potatoes. This time, the potato casserole was about more than stirring together hash browns, cheese, sour cream and other ingredients. This time, it really was a memorial to Phyllis, the woman whose life we would celebrate.

As I pulled out my big red mixing bowl Sunday evening, I remembered that potato casserole was often Phyllis' assignment for Stafford UMC funeral dinners, too. She - like me - was a farm wife. So she carried those potatoes down the stairs at the church in an insulated container - one that I'm sure she also used for carrying many a harvest meal to the field.

Sunday night, I'd stirred up a recipe of cheesy potatoes, probably using a recipe similar to hers. And I thought about her friendship with my late mother-in-law, another woman who made many a salad or cake or potato casserole for a funeral dinner before we - as her family - were on the receiving end after her unexpected death.

The funeral dinner is that "dismissal with blessing" in action.  At our church, Marion and Wanda have made "Methodist meatloaf" 200 times for funeral dinners. Others make cakes, salads and potato casseroles at their own homes and bring them to be shared by the grieving family. A few of us gather to serve the meal, pouring out smiles and hugs along with hot coffee.

However, just like with any "family," we can get offended by the smallest of things. We don't load the dishwasher to someone's exacting directions, and we huff and puff under our breath, miffed that our shortcomings are pointed out instead of celebrating our efforts. We bristle when our way of doing something is questioned.


But what if I took the words of the "dismissal with blessing" to heart? What if I looked at those situations through God's eyes? What if I recognized another's work as God's hands and feet at work in this world?

This season of Advent gives us a chance to again consider how Christ comes to us. We remember the longing of Jews for a Messiah and our own longing for, and need of, forgiveness, salvation and a new beginning.

Even as we look back and celebrate the birth of Jesus in a humble stable in Bethlehem, we also look forward, anticipating the second coming of Christ as the fulfillment of all that was promised by His first coming.

I've been using several resources for my Advent devotionals (While We Wait: Living the Questions of Advent by Mary Lou Redding, and Down to Earth: The Hopes and Fears of All the Years Are Met in Thee Tonight, by Mike Slaughter and Rachel Billups.)

But maybe this simple "dismissal with blessing" sums it up best:

 God be in your head, and in your understanding. 

God be in your eyes, and in your looking. 

God be in your mouth, and in your speaking. 

God be in your heart, and in your thinking. 

God be in your hands, and in your working. 

God be in your feet, and in your going. 

God be at your end, and at your departing. Amen. 

But I need to open the doors of my heart and mind for that little baby to truly arrive.  Because that little baby is also my Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Passing the Torch ... Or the Star

It's all about passing the torch ... or, in this case, a tinseled star.

I sat near the front of the Stafford United Methodist Church sanctuary on Sunday, looking forward to the children's Christmas program. This year, I wasn't nervously wondering whether kids would remember their lines. I wasn't concerned about little girls and the etiquette required when wearing dresses. I didn't have giant lyric poster boards prepared to help cue the singers or actors. 

For a dozen years or so, it was my job to worry about such things. How do you choose who gets this part or another and keep everyone happy? What would happen if one of the actors came down with the flu? How would I shuffle the lines?

I was just there to enjoy and to click the camera shutter for the church's newsletter and Facebook page updates. 

And then I saw the star. It's probably been a quarter of a century since I carefully taped and stapled a thick rope of tinsel to yellow poster board. Back then, I added a dowel to the back so little angels could make it appear over the Holy Family in the church's Christmas pageants.

It guided Three Wise Men (People) to worship the newborn King with foil-wrapped packages.

 

In 2016, the same star still shone as little voices sang the timeless "Away in a Manger" and recited Christmas poems. And I thought about passing the torch ... and passing the star.

Kristen Knight has been director of our children's Christmas program for the past few years. But when I see her, I sometimes don't see the grown up wife and Mommy of three. I see the little girl who wore a shepherd's costume one year, was an angel the next or played some other part in one of our full-blown Christmas musicals as she and her contemporaries got older: The Missing Magi, A Star Is Born and Gettin' Ready for a Miracle, to name a few.

More often than not, that tinseled star made an appearance during the Christmas program. It was used downtown when it was our church's turn to provide the Living Nativity during Christmas Wonderland.

Brent & Jill at Christmas Wonderland, downtown Stafford

It's not the only prop that survived the test of time. A shepherd's crook also made repeat appearances in church productions. Brent was holding it in the Living Nativity in the photo above. And, if you look closely, you can see Kristen had it in her hand in the photo of our long-ago Christmas program.

On Sunday, one of Kristen's sons held the same shepherd's crook that belongs to his grandpa, while a friend held another.

For most churches, we'd rather hear these little voices than have the Mormon Tabernacle Choir unexpectedly show up to give a Christmas concert.

Jill - circa 1995 or so

You see, it's not just about a cardboard star or a shepherd's crook or cardboard box We Three King gifts that just need a new layer of foil every few years. It's about sharing the story of Jesus' birth with that next generation of believers. 

Brent - Christmas 1991 - age 3

It's about teaching those centuries-old songs so that they become as familiar to the next generation as a warm and cozy blanket on the coldest day of the year.

This December, one of my church jobs was finding families to light the Advent candle, and I've tried to pick those with young children. I remember lighting the candles with Jill & Brent when they were small and trying to teach them the lessons of the Advent wreath: hope, joy, love and peace. 

Last year, it was a privilege to watch Jill, Eric and the girls light the Advent candles at their church. 

Even in the hustle and bustle of Christmas, we see those lessons being passed along. Families pull gift tags from an Angel Tree and carefully select and wrap gifts to give to another little boy or girl who may not have a Christmas without our help. Children gather around the church's Mission Wagon and pray for the people who will receive the gifts - whether for the school, the Food Bank or UMCOR health kits.

Last year, I watched Kinley add gloves and a hat to their church's giving tree. My heart swelled that our daughter is now teaching the same lessons to her girls that she learned as she made another little girl's Christmas dreams come true in the toy aisle at Wal-Mart.

During Advent, we wait for Emmanuel, God with Us. And as the tinseled star shone last Sunday morning, He arrived yet again.

"And a little child shall lead them." Isaiah 11: 6

 Thanks be to God!

Light the Advent Candle: PEACE? Are You Kidding Me?

Maybe it was ironic that a family with a 3 year old and a 15 month old lit the Advent candle for PEACE. Throw in a couple of parents pursuing their master's degrees while still working full-time, and PEACE seems like an abberation lost in the foggy memory of a time when everyone slept through the night. When was that? 2011?

An attempt at a family photo in Christmas finery prior to church is a lesson in frustration ... certainly not PEACE. The 3 year old thinks the dress is "too scratchy" - though she picked it out herself. (Mommy has learned that even 3 year olds have firm opinions about fashion choices.) No amount of "See how pretty the sparkles look in the light?" seems to work.

A smile is finally coaxed from the little one. (Where was that smile when we took family photos a month ago. Miss Brooke?) But a wayward tongue from the bigger one isn't seen until examining the photos on a computer screen 3 hours away.

But as I watched Jill and Eric light the PEACE candle with their girls at church on December 6, I thought maybe it was just right. No, their lives are anything but peaceful at the moment. But isn't PEACE what we're all waiting for as we anticipate Christ's arrival once again during this Advent season?

A unwed teenager doesn't seem the "ideal" mother for the Savior of the World. A "crazy" guy dressed in animal skins and eating locusts doesn't seem an appropriate messenger for Emmanuel. We don't expect a Great King to be born in a smelly manger. Second-class citizens like the shepherds shouldn't have heard the Good News before the high-falutin' Bethlehem elite.

So maybe harried modern parents toting a baby and a preschooler are just the right people to light a PEACE candle.

Anyway, that's what I thought as I watched Kinley's face as Jill lit the candle.

 

Jesus comes, not just to those of us in Topeka or Stafford, but even to those in New York, Beverly Hills, Syria, Iraq, Africa, North Korea. Jesus comes to us in the words of a preacher and in the song of a choir, but also in the siren of an ambulance, in a letter opened in a prison cell, in a visit to a nursing home, and in the smile - or cry - of a child.

Advent Devotional from the United Methodist Church Discipleship Ministries

Yes, Jesus comes in the smile or cry of a child. And in that look of wonder and expectation like I saw on Kinley's face. He comes when little girls hang hats and mittens on a church Christmas tree for other little girls and boys who don't have them ready to grab at the back door on a cold day.

Long ago, Randy and I were the parents up there lighting the Advent candle at the Stafford UMC, hoping our little girl and our little boy didn't light each other or the church yule log on fire during a Advent lighting time.

We sang the same song that we sang back then, too:

Light the Advent, two:

Think of humble shepherds, who

Filled with wonder at the sight

Of the child on Christmas night.

Candle, candle, burning bright.

Shining in the cold winter night.

Candle, candle, burning bright.

Fill our hearts with Christmas light.

Advent candle - Stafford UMC

It's still a HOPE and a PEACE worth waiting for.

***

An update:

Jill's and Eric's life got a little more peace this week, when they officially finished work on their master's degrees. Jill earned a 4.0 for her work on her master's of public health from Creighton University, and Eric earned his MBA. Along the way of their online classes, they added Brooke to the family mix. We are very proud of them both!

***

I'm linked to Jennifer Dukes Lee's Tell His Story over at her blog. Click on the link to see what other bloggers are writing during this Advent season!