12/23/2024
Terri Colgrove~
There is something to be said for “leaning” years. Years where you are not sure where the next “anything” will come from. We have all had them, and are better for them; the memories made from them are sometimes the most precious of our lives.
My parents were married on December 27, 1941, right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Dad was not long into his career on the boats, and Mom was a wet-under-the-collar registered nurse. By the time their first Christmas rolled around, WW2 was raging, and there was no extra money for anything, much less frivolous Christmas tree ornaments.
However, my Dad used their rationing cards to purchase walnuts in the shell, and killed two birds with one stone. He (uncharacteristically) patiently broke them all perfectly in half, removed the meat so Mom could use the nuts for cooking, carefully glued the shells back together including a loop of curling ribbon at the top, and then painted them with some leftover paint he got off of the boat. Voila! Ornaments for their first Christmas together. And maybe the next year or two...
Time marched on, calendars were replaced, and year after year, those walnuts made their appearance, along with other ornaments, on the tree. Growing up, they meant little to me. I was always amused that my impatient father had made them. However, as I grew older, their presence on the Christmas tree each year became a necessity. Now, the two walnuts that I have make their yearly, almost red-carpet appearance on our tree. Seeing them, I see Dad; I think of what it must have been like in their “leaning” years, as I recall some of ours.
Dad would have been 105 years old this past June. I am certain he never dreamt that those walnuts would become the family treasure that they are. Something made in those very lean years would pass the test of time, and become one of my most treasured Christmas memories. Thanks, Dad.
And thank-you, Lord, for those years where we are not sure where the next “anything” will come from. The “leaning” years, when we learn to lean hard into You, Jehovah Jireh, our Provider.
“And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh”
Genesis 22:14a
