I’ve been scrolling for photos on my phone of days past with Aunt Phyllis in order to capture her child-like faith, joy, and wonder. I described the memorial service and the attentiveness to details surrounding joy, and it’s not by accident that the focus of her service and this week’s Advent calendar is JOY. The pastor even lit the joy candle on Saturday!
Aunt Phyllis was wherever children were. She was a pioneer in starting Good News Clubs throughout elementary schools in Temple City. She told the Gospel story probably hundreds of times through the use of the “wordless book”, first created by Charles Spurgeon, and it seemed appropriate that she would ask the pastor to tell it one more time at her memorial: the color black describes the darkness of our sin; red, the blood of Jesus, shed for us; white, forgiveness that washes us white as snow; green, the growth that happens from His Word; and gold, describing the glory of God and the promise of heaven.
Over the years, when we celebrated Christmas dinner in her home, she and brother Jerry, “graduated” from the adult table to seat themselves with the youngest around a table set up in the living room. Even in her 90’s, we remember her down on the floor with the youngest of the crew. She’d pull out her flannel board and have the kids dictate the Nativity story with all of the usual characters. And the wooden toys and puppets were always available for more entertainment. She exuded joy that was contagious, and our children and grandchildren will always remember her joy.
This morning I read a poem titled “The Joy of Time” from the Advent book, Barefoot Ways, by Stephen Cherry, and it reminds me of how Phyllis lived out her time, with joy in her heart:
Teach us to number our hours, that we might live time wisely.
Teach us to forget our minutes, that we might live calmly.
Teach us to relish our moments, that we might live them joyfully.
Teach to cherish our lives, that we might live generously.
Our days, hours, minutes and moments, are Your gift to us.
For that gift we offer our eternal Alleluia and our endless Amen.
May it be so for us as we prepare our hearts for the Christ Child this season.
