"I'll Be Home For Christmas"?

During the Depression Christmas at home for most folks was not very lavish, but it was still family time. I remember gatherings with grandparents and other relatives where gifts were very simple and the food was plentiful. But Uncle Martin (from "dutch" Grand Rapids) at Aunt Hattie's always reminded me that he was fortunate as a child if he and his siblings only received a piece of fruit on the holiday. Best memories for me included the sights and smells of Grimes' Food Store at Christmas, when most all the wares were not pre-packaged and the fruit and imported trees were so fragrant, and riding in the old-fashioned sleigh that Dad had purchased from a neighbor (pulled by a borrowed horse)! At home we had a modestly-decorated green tree ... until the dry air caused the needles to fall off ... and just enjoyed Mom's food and being together. There were special programs on the radio to make a joyful atmosphere, but Christmas at home in 1941 was saddened by the news of Pearl Harbor and subsequent entry into World War II. Joining the Navy in early 1943 and after boot camp, radio school and convoy radio training, I spent that holidays in New Orleans. There was cold rain on Canal Street (appropriate name) that Christmas Eve, as I recall, but I found a little bit of home in the USO Club there. After a trip to the South Pacific war theater, and a 30-day leave with loved ones in Wallace, it was back to New Orleans and shipping out again ... with an unwanted 6-months shore job in the Panama Canal Zone and spending Christmas 1944 in that very tropical setting. Summer 1945 we celebrated the end of WWII near the Equator, then back to the USA to transfer to a Navy transport and wound up in drydock at Mare Island near San Francisco for Christmas. I called a Navy nurse who had been at Wallace H.S. with me, hoping for a sentimental reunion, but she was busy ... sorry! In all my sea-faring during the holidays it was my good (?) fortune to listen to pop and Christmas songs in the radio shack, getting misty-eyed especially when hearing the one in my current blog title. Anyway, Lord willing, we plan and hope to spend Christmas day with my sisters and family at Joan's home ... just down the street from the 'ol home place in Wallace ... and look forward to sharing and making some memories, while visiting our kids, grandkids and greats by "Skype" when able. And one of these days we'll truly "be home for the holidays" in Heaven where the trees don't shed their needles and we'll be able to worship the One

in person who is the theme of so many biblical Christmas songs! See Revelation 5:8-10. MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A BLESSED NEW YEAR!

November Nostalgia

There have been flashbacks of memory this month, as usual! Our "little sister" Jean Grimes (Larsh) was born on Election Day, Nov. 6, 1932, in our home on Stroup Street in Danville, IL, so...we not only got a precious new family member, but also got a new president - Franklin Delano Roosevelt! This election was disappointing to us, since the "other" candidates represented our Biblical values more clearly. But, like FDR, our incoming president will not be perfect and will surely need every Christian's prayers, according to I Timothy 2:1-6. Then, I remember November 11 as "Armistice Day"when at school we paused to ponder the end of World War I. Now, it's "Veteran's Day" - also a time of remembrance, and I, with a surge of patriotism, wore my "WWII US Navy Armed Guard" cap on a shopping trip to Wal-Mart. It was so "cool" to have at least 2 young ladies walk up and tell me "Thanks for serving!"; and 1 even had her two children with her say "Thanks," too! Yes, I'm glad for the privilege of serving our country in WWII. Well, I recall Thanksgiving Days as a kid when Dad and Mom would take us to enjoy dinner with the Grimes side living in or near Wallace, or to the Pyle family gathering out in the country south of Hillsboro, IN. Dad and the Pyle uncles always made a stab at hunting rabbits out in the surrounding fields, and I don't remember a lot of game resulting, but at least it was a good time of visiting. Everybody except one uncle smoked tobacco, so we younguns suffered through the haze, because Grandma Pyle's dinner table made it all worthwhile! This holiday we were blessed to gather with Uncle Russ and Aunt Joan Gooding at the 'Ol Home Place in Wallace to enjoy the hospitality of Aunt Jean and Uncle Bob Larsh, with Niece Kim Rice and husband Tim and Niece Susan Hesler with husband Sherrill. I was asked to give thanks, and I also shared Psalm 100 from Grandma Grimes's old Bible, noting that she had underlined verse 3 ... something that we all in our nation need to hold onto in our day! Oh, yes, that afternoon, since the sun had warmed things up a little I and Mom (Mamaw-Aunt Katie, etc.) strolled down the hill to the Covered Bridge and back ... whew!...but made sweeter by the kiss I stole inside the bridge (is that why they were covered?)! Anyway, the month is ending on a blessing ... this a.m. I taught Adult Sunday School class at Yeddo Baptist Church on Acts 13, one the great missionary

passages of God's Word...and, Robert and Jody Frye and teen sons, who serve as missionaries to Romania under European Baptist Fellowship brought a stirring report on victories won and plans in motion for even greater things in that needy country, praise the Lord! We enjoyed dinner later at the home of Pastor and Mrs. Jim Rivers, along with the Frye's and Jody's parents - Art and Mary Merrill. We all agreed on the faithfulness of God at home and abroad and the need to press on for Him, while looking UP for His imminent Coming!!!

All Saints and All Souls

Serving in Germany in the 1950's we witnessed their observance of "All Saints" Day on Nov. 1 or 2 and "All Souls" Day on Nov. 2 or 3 each year. The former honors departed "saints" of the Roman Catholic Church who are prayed TO, while the latter emphasizes the need to pray FOR the souls in torment in "purgatory" or hell. As we write, there is a controversy in and out of the Church regarding the advisability of canonizing Pope Pius XII who signed an agreement with Hitler in 1933 which may explain why he never publicly denounced the Holocaust or made much greater efforts to protect the Jews in Europe. Israel, of course, is strongly opposed to him being declared an official "saint." We are, too, because Scripture makes it clear that it is GOD who is in the saint-making business and not a religious hierarchy (which is why we were preaching the Gospel in Germany anyway)! Biblically, a "saint" is a SINNER SAVED by grace! The New Testament word means "to be set apart FROM sin and set apart UNTO God" and he addressed Christians in Rome as "beloved of God, called to be saints" (Romans 1:7). He saluted believers in Corinth as "them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints" (I Corinthians 1:2), etc. In our KJV Bible the italicized words indicate they have been added for meaning, and I would paraphrase it "called TO BE saints DOWN HERE and seeking to become SAINTLY DOWN HERE" by obeying God's Word "for the perfecting (spiritual maturation) of the SAINTS" (Ephesians 4:12)! Truly, simple faith in Christ makes all believers "meet to be partakers of the SAINTS in light" NOW and throughout eternity (Colossians 1:12-14). But prayer FOR "all souls" already in eternity is futile. NOW is the time to become a saint and as a saint to be more and more saintly ... set apart for Christ's use and glory!

How do you "justify" that?

Having been turned down for our high school basketball team because of some high blood pressure, I thought service in the Armed Forces at the onset of WW II was "out" for me. (Later, of course, I did volunteer for the U.S. Navy and was accepted.) So for a few months I worked at the R.R. Donnelley printing plant in Crawfordsville, IN, just 20 miles from Wallace. Since I was an "unknown quantity" for lengthy employment there, I was assigned to the Make-Up Department as a sort of "printer's devil," ready to do any unskilled task. That department "made up" the trays of lead type from the linotype machines (massive things that churned out what our word processors do today). My job on a little manual "proof press" was to run off copies of the text and send it to the proof readers for reading and marking any corrections necessary. The process called for re-setting the lines of type, then, after coating these with red ink, re-inserting them in the tray and again making a copy on the proof press to be sent one or more times back to the proof reading for approval until the text was perfect. Sometimes the lead type-slugs were hurriedly placed back in the tray in a helter-skelter effort and had to be straightened ... i.e., "justified" in the printer's language! Webster says that "to justify" this way means "to space (type) so that the lines will be of the correct length," or, apart from printing, "to show to be just, right, or reasonable," or, "to free from blame or guilt; absolve." This latter definition didn't make sense to me until, after WWII, I repented of my sin and received Christ as my personal Saviour and began really studying my Bible. "Therefore being justified by faith, we (I) have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1). The Bible word means not only the forgiveness of sin and the removal of its guilt and punishment, but also the imputation of Christ's righteousness to me and restoration to God's favor for me and all who trust Him. Wow! I kept a little lead slug from my printing days reading "proofed by Grimes" which I had to place in each tray on the proof press, and it is reminder that I am "straight" in God's sight through Christ's work on the Cross and Resurrection and I am kept straight in my daily life as I walk with Him! Proverbs 3:5,6. What a deal for a "printer's devil"!

'Ray for Reunions!

Living here in Crawfordsville, IN, now, we take a break now and then to have a walk and picnic

snack at Milligan Park not far away. I always experience "deja vu" as I recall Pyle Family reunions there some 70 years ago! The Pyles originated in NC, TN and KY and are related to "Coonrod" Pyle who pioneered with Daniel Boone, and Sgt. Alvin York (mother was a Pyle), a

a WWI hero. Bill's mother was Jewell Pyle through James G. and Gillie A. Pyle who settled in Foutain County IN. But those Pyle reunions were blessed with plenty of aunts and uncles and cousins, plus fried chicken and all the trimmin's with the coldest ice tea you can imagine, served

with a dipper from a huge farm milk can ... and homemade ice cream! A highlight for me was the

recreation in the afternoon, usually a softball game, with all those cousins. Well, a week ago Sunday Mary K. and I drove to Beechwood Park at Rockville to attend this year's Reunion. We were down in numbers, of course, but it was a joy to see cousins Ken, Herman, Leonard, Conrad (who came from CO) and Larry Pyle and their loved ones and others, one couple driving up from MS. (By the way, for obvious reasons, we couldn't get a softball game organized this time!) We are grateful to Ken and wife Julie for keeping in touch with everyone and keeping geneaology, pictures and archives and setting up the reunion in recent years. But as we grow older and our family branches enlarge and scatter it grows more difficult to have regular family get-togethers,

and this is just a sad fact of life. However, it is so good to know that, for those who know the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Saviour, there is a grand reunion COMING for the family of God!

Jesus promises: "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also!" (John 14:1-3) We pray that each of our readers will look forward to that grand get-together ahead ... it may be SOON!

The staff of life

Guess I've always enjoyed bread products, and recall making the run home from school in record time when I knew Mom was baking yeast rolls for lunch ... yummee! But when we served as missionaries in Germany in the 50's we really came to appreciate "Brot," especially the hard-crusted dark bread and the breakfast rolls call "Broetchen" ("little breads"--"Semmeln" in Bavaria). One day from our apartment in Frankfurt we watched a little old lady on the 5th floor across the street dangling a basket on a rope to the ground floor -- in front of the local bakery! Of course they loaded in her ordered Brot products and she quickly reeled up the basket ... talk about service! Another time there we observed a little boy walking down the street from the bakery with a shopping net full of Broetchen bouncing along on the sideweek behind him. We wonder if "Mama" asked him about those dark spots in the rolls? Ach, some new spices, maybe? A loaf of that good dark bread cost us about 1 German mark (their dollar), worth at that time 25 cents in our money ... try to find a loaf of bread now at that price anywhere! Bread was, and still is, a staple in the German home, but there was, and is, a shortage of spiritual bread in that land, as well as in America. The prophet Jeremiah describes his own people centuries ago

as having the same problem: "All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul..." (Lamentations 1:11) Material bread satisfies for a short time, but the Lord Jesus Christ advises us: "I AM the Bread of Life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst!" Then the Psalmest invites everyone to "O TASTE and SEE that the LORD is good...! (Psalm 34:8). Have YOU done that?

The wells of salvation

To get back to that flowing well at the bottom of the hill going southeast out of Wallace and just north of the old covered bridge, it reminds me of another well west of town where I used to slake my thirst after a bike ride out to a wooden dam on Mill Creek in the summertime. "Sulphur Spring" was fed by a pipe out of the hillside and ran into a steel drum. That was the coldest, most refreshing water ever! Everybody drank out of that famous "watering hole," including horses ... until some years ago the property got a new owner who diverted the spring water into a business of selling water! Now, I hope that the town or some private person will not close off the "new" well, and I do look forward to getting a "sip" there now and then. That reminds me of a wonderful Bible promise found in Isaiah 12:2,3 - "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." When the new well was drilled near the Bridge and could not be tapped, some town residents up on the hill found the water level in their wells was sinking and there was momentary fear of losing ALL the water supply to the town (so I heard)! Well, it hasn't happened yet, but surely is a possibility at some future time. However, dear reader, the wells of salvation -- eternal life, forgiveness of sins, peace, joy, assurance, hope, etc., etc., are available through personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ ... and ...will never run dry! He promises in John 4:14 and 6:35 - "...he that believeth on Me shall never thirst!" Have you "sipped" yet; and, if so, do you continue to "sip"?