Christmas

Her Heart’s Desire

Posted by Cynthia Howerter on Dec 12, 2011 in Christmas, The Farm at Muncy | 7 comments

What is your heart’s desire?  Everyone has one.  It’s something you would love to have, but it’s difficult, if not impossible, to obtain.  Come find out how God fulfilled Grandma Alice’s heart’s desire one special Christmas.

For my mother’s family, Christmas during the Great Depression was non-existent.  By the time my mother was six years old, she and her siblings had never received a Christmas gift nor had a Christmas tree stood in their house.  It wasn’t that Mother’s parents didn’t believe in celebrating Christmas.  Rather, a severe lack of finances prohibited it.

As Alice went about her chores in the days following Thanksgiving, the celebration of Christmas weighed on her.  She knew all too well that there was no money to buy a Christmas tree at the lot in town, so she didn’t bother to speak with her husband about that.  No sense making Ed feel worse than he already did that he couldn’t purchase a tree let alone gifts for his wife and children.  But there was someone whom Alice could speak with and she earnestly confided in Him.

All she wanted was to buy a Christmas tree for her children to enjoy and maybe a small gift for her husband and her children.  It was alright if there was no money for a gift for herself.  It was her family that she wanted to bless in a small way.

For days, Alice prayed for a miracle – for extra money to come to her and Ed.  But now it was the week before Christmas and her prayers were unanswered.  She knew that God hears and answers all prayers, sometimes saying “yes,” other times ”no” and at times “wait.”  She wiped a tear and resigned herself that the answer to her request was a no, and she asked God to give her the grace to accept His Will.

As she worked in her kitchen, a thought came to her.  Their elderly neighbor, Mrs. Martin, had a grove of pine trees on her farm.  Fresh pine trees!  And some of those pine trees would make perfect Christmas trees.  Alice spoke to the Lord about those pines and her heart’s desire.

The next morning, she hurried into the kitchen and after mixing some yeast dough, she set it aside to rise.  By the time breakfast was over and the kitchen cleaned, Alice worked her magic with the risen dough.  Before her marriage, she had been a cook at a local hotel and was known far and wide for her excellent culinary skills.

When the cinnamon rolls were cool, Alice covered them with a cloth and put them in her market basket along with several dozen sugar cookies shaped like stars and a hatchet.  Alice quickly glanced out the window.  It was beginning to snow.  She filled the cookstove with wood so the kitchen would be warm for her little ones, then gave the children some books to look at with the admonition to stay inside and away from the stove while she was gone.  Ed was working inside the barn and wouldn’t be able to see her leave.

Pulling her worn coat around her, Alice hurried down the lane to the dirt road.  Lowering her head against the biting wind, she realized that she’d forgotten her gloves but she was too far in the journey to go back.

Mrs. Martin opened her door and invited a snow-covered Alice to step inside, happy for the company.  Alice handed the cinnamon buns and cookies to Mrs. Martin and asked if they could serve as payment for a small pine in the grove.  Her four little ones had never had a Christmas tree, she explained.

Mrs. Martin looked at Alice in amazement.  A recent widow, she, too, was suffering the effects of the Depression and was out of flour and sugar.  The rolls and cookies were an answer to her prayer for some baked goods for Christmas.

It wasn’t easy chopping down a fresh pine with a hatchet, especially with the snow making the ground slippery, but God gave Alice a determined spirit.  By the time she arrived back in their lane, the heavy snow was deepening and weighing down the pine.  Alice’s fingers were numb and her stockings were in shreds as she prayed for strength to finish her task.  It came in the form of her husband who rushed to her and took over pulling the heavy tree as four little faces, pressed against the kitchen window, watched.

After Ed shook the snow from the tree and carried it into the kitchen, he and the children filled the air with squeals of excitement.

That afternoon, Alice and the children sat at the table and made paper ornaments and strings of popcorn.  Ed joined in, too, once the chores were finished.  As Ed lifted the children to the top of the tree so they could hang the last of the decorations, Alice realized that even though life was difficult, God could be counted on to provide for them.  And even a little extra like a heart’s desire.

What heart’s desire have you had that the Lord provided?  Share it with us!

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you your heart’s desires.”    Psalm 37:4.

TO GOD BE THE GLORY

Oh, Lord, my times are in your hands.

Cynthia Howerter © 2011 

The Path to Winter

Posted by Cynthia Howerter on Dec 5, 2011 in Christmas, Holidays, Thanksgiving, The Farm at Muncy | 2 comments

Good stories serve a purpose.  While the objective of some stories is met immediately, the lesson of other stories can be years in the making.  Such is the case with this story about my grandmother, Alice.  Come with me as we visit my grandparents’ farm near Muncy, Pennsylvania.

A nip in the September air caused Alice to reflect that her four children had grown out of their winter coats, leggings and boots at the end of the previous winter.  If the truth be known, the children outgrew the coats just as they fell apart from years of use by previous owners.  Alice opened a canning jar that she kept hidden in a kitchen cupboard and counted the bills and coins it contained.  There wasn’t enough to purchase winter clothing for one child let alone four.

With the Great Depression in full force, Alice and her husband Ed were having a difficult time making ends meet.   As she so often did when adversity confronted her, Alice lowered her head in silent prayer.  If there was anything good coming from such troublesome times, it was that Alice was learning to depend on the Lord to meet her family’s needs.

That afternoon as she hung laundry on the clothesline in the backyard, Alice turned her head and looked across the cornfield to the woods where several hickory trees grew at its edge.  Their golden leaves made them easy to spot.  She felt a strong urge to walk over to them and when she saw that the trees and ground were covered with an abundance of hickory nuts, an idea came to her.  After filling her apron to overflowing with the nuts, she hurried home.

Each day, Alice and the children returned to the hickory trees and gathered the nuts.  At night, they sat at the kitchen table by the light of an oil lamp and picked the nuts out of their shells.  After weighing the nuts on a scale, each pound was poured into a small paper bag.  It occurred to Alice that had she not followed the strong urging to walk over to the trees, she would never have thought of harvesting the nuts.

That Saturday, Ed loaded his wife, the bags of hickory nuts and a small wagon into the car and they drove into town.  Ed drove to a residential area and after he unloaded the wagon, he and Alice filled it with the bags of nuts.  Ed left as he had errands to do in town and Alice had a mission.

She pulled the wagon behind her as she went door to door seeking customers.  It was now November and not only did she know that women were starting their Thanksgiving and Christmas baking, she also knew that hickory nuts were scarce due to the Depression, as were many things.  In no time at all, Alice sold all of the bags for 25 cents each and even had several orders for more nuts.

For days, Alice and the children repeated the chores of gathering the hickory nuts, shelling, weighing and bagging them, and every Saturday, Alice walked through town and sold the nuts.  When nature provided no more nuts, Alice counted her earnings.  The harvest not only provided enough money to buy new coats, leggings and boots for all four of her children but much-needed winter coats and boots for Ed and her as well.

Because Alice faithfully turned to the Lord in the midst of her troubles, God always provided a way for Alice.  He didn’t necessarily answer her prayers exactly the way she hoped or thought He would, but He answered in ways that were better than she could have imagined.

For as long as I can remember, my own mother relied on her faith and childhood memories to get her through the difficulties that visit a person’s life.  And she loved to share these precious recollections with my siblings and me.  Over 80 years later, when my own family and I found ourselves in the midst of severe misfortune, it was my mother’s stories about her parents’ faith and persevering spirit during hardships that provided examples for my husband and me.

When Christmas came and my husband and I had no money to buy presents for our own children or food for our usual feast, I thought of Grandma Alice and Grandpa Ed and I knew what I needed to do.  I gathered our children close to me and explained that we already had the best presents – our love for each other and our faith that God would see us through our troubles.  And just as He had done for my grandparents and parents, God faithfully provided for us.

What gifts are you giving your family?  Are they tangible presents that are here today and gone tomorrow?  Or will you pass on your faith which will last for generations?

“I will be glad and rejoice in Your love, because You saw my suffering; You knew my troubles.”  Psalm 31:7.

TO GOD BE THE GLORY

Cynthia Howerter © 2011