Two Babies in a Manger

Marie Pemberton lost her four-year-old son Jeremy to leukemia. Her son had spent a lot of time playing with a neighbor boy named Chris. After the funeral, little Chris went up to Marie and asked where Jeremy was. Marie didn’t want to explain to him that he had died, so she said, “Ask your mother, Chris. She can explain it better than I can.”

Six months later, it was Christmastime. Marie had been depressed because this would be her first Christmas without Jeremy. One day she heard a knock on her door. It was Chris’ mother, Ellie Martin, who invited Marie to come to her house to see their Christmas tree. “And I want to show you something else that you’ve just got to see.”

Marie followed Ellie to her house, and down to the basement den where she showed her their newly decorated tree. Then she said, “Now take a look at this nativity scene.” She pointed to two baby dolls under a blanket in the manger. “Why are there two baby figures under the blanket?” Marie asked.

Ellie explained, “Do you remember last summer when you sent Chris back home to ask me where Jeremy was? I told him Jeremy had gone to be with Jesus. When we set up the nativity scene, I placed the Christ child in the manger. Chris watched me, and then ran to get another doll and tucked it in alongside him. “When I asked him why, he said, ‘I remembered what you told me. Jeremy is with Jesus now.’” (Marie L. Pemberton, “A Child Shall Lead Them.”)

Chris’s childlike faith brought assurance to a grieving mother, who needed to be reminded that Jeremy was in the arms of the Lord. Jesus came from heaven to earth to make a way for us to be with Him in heaven. He said, “I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2). When followers of Christ die, we will go to that place that He has prepared for us, and we will also get to meet Jeremy, who is with Jesus now.  www.kentcrockett.blogspot.com   www.makinglifecount.net

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The Man Who Kept Celebrating Christmas

Robert Fulghum went to the doctor one day in February. As he sat in the waiting room, he noticed an elderly couple waiting. The woman wore holly berries and poinsettia leaves in her hair. The elderly man leaned forward and announced, “Merry Christmas!”

Fulghum replied, “Merry Christmas,” even though it was February. Suddenly the man started singing Christmas carols. The receptionist addressed the old man as Uncle Ed, bidding him Merry Christmas, and asking him to come back for his appointment.

After the old man left, the elderly wife explained his strange behavior. He had a couple of strokes some years back, and her husband’s behavior was changing. Then one March morning quite unexpectedly, he came downstairs announcing he had forgotten that it was Christmas. He urged his wife to help him put up the decorations and wrap gifts. The woman called her daughters and the whole family got together and celebrated Christmas that day.

After their daughters left, the man asked his wife to tell him about his childhood Christmases. Maybe it was merciful that he didn’t remember his abusive childhood, or that his family never celebrated Christmas. So, his wife spun tales of wonderful holidays, full of love, family traditions, and wonderful gifts. Her husband smiled.

Every few months, her husband will announce that it’s Christmas, and the family will once again gather together to celebrate. The daughters think of those celebrations as Father’s Day, their time to make him happy.

Maybe the old man was right. Christmas should be something we think about more than once a year. After all, Jesus came to earth to bring us eternal life, and that’s a gift that will last forever. Shouldn’t we should be thanking God and rejoicing every day?    www.kentcrockett.blogspot.com   www.makinglifecount.net

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Lessons From Pavlov's Dogs

Does the name Pavlov ring a bell? Ivan Pavlov proved that two stimuli repeatedly linked together can produce a conditioned response. He observed that dogs would salivate when they were about to be fed. Pavlov rang a bell each time prior to feeding the dogs so they would associate the bell-ringing with dinner time. This conditioned them to salivate in the anticipation of being fed because bell ringing and eating were connected together. FOOD + BELL RINGING = SALIVATE

This explains why you crave popcorn when you go to the movies. You’ve eaten popcorn so many times as you’ve watched movies that popcorn munching and movie watching are connected together. Now you cannot watch a movie without eating popcorn—and you’ll even pay outrageous prices at the theatre to get it! MOVIE + SALIVATE = EXPENSIVE POPCORN  Here are a couple of examples about conditioned responses:

Example #1: Ecclesiastes 8:11 says, “Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.” When a person commits a crime, punishment must be executed quickly so that the criminal learns that his evil deed results in a painful penalty.  CRIME + PAIN = DETERRENCE for repeating the evil deed.  Failure to punish quickly will encourage others to commit crimes because they think “nothing will happen to me.” (There’s a lesson here about parenting a rebellious child)

Example #2: I once counseled a married couple who were always fighting. The husband said, “She hits my hot button and then I respond by hitting her hot button.” Their continual arguing had conditioned them to explode and know exactly how to retaliate.

The only way to “reverse the curse” of negative conditioning is to respond in the opposite way with kindness. First Peter 3:9 says, “Not returning evil for evil or insult for insult (negative conditioning with hateful words), but giving a blessing instead” (positive conditioning by speaking kind words). It takes time to recondition a marriage, but a happy home will be worth it.  www.kentcrockett.blogspot.com   www.makinglifecount.net

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