On Christmas
day four years ago, Judy, Henry and I were at a Christmas dinner at the home of
our friends Inez and Greg in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Also at the table were Inez and Greg’s
daughter Christina, husband Tyson and their two children. It was a wonderful time of good food and
conversation that moved from topic to topic as such dinner conversations do.
I don’t
remember much of what we talked about except for this: the word “Blessed’ came up – perhaps one of
us saying we feel so blessed for good health, or some such thing. Tyson took exception to use of this word;
said he didn’t use it.
A bit about
Christina and Tyson. They had moved to
Bolivia with no organization supporting them, just some friends and churches who
promised to send money for their living expenses. In Cochabamba they set up several programs
for abandoned children, including an orphanage for kids off the streets – kids
who had no one to care for them, some who had lost parents to AIDS.
So why do
you object to the word Blessed, Tyson, I asked?
He said he thought about it like this. If someone who has good fortune
and prosperity says they are blessed, what about those with the opposite
experience? Those we see living on the
edges of society, like the abused children in their orphanage - Are they
cursed? Maybe his point was that we are not any more deserving of being
“blessed” then the one who seems to not be blessed. I didn’t have an answer then but have thought
about that question many times since.
And it has come to me that the kids they care for ARE blessed! Blessed to have this young couple to care for
them, feed them and love them.
Looking at
the question of what it means to be blessed the Hebrew and Christian Bible says
something like this: a favor or gift given
by God that brings meaning and purpose to life. And I believe that gift comes to us by grace,
not deserved, but given. Just as Jesus
was a blessing to Mary and Joseph and all of us – a gift from God.
I usually use
the term blessed sparingly but intentionally.
But here I will use this word freely and often to express my feeling
that we are blessed to have a wonderful family. Blessed here and now in this place at
Christmas, but larger than that we are blessed that we are actually here on
earth, living and enjoying life. Let me tell you about three blessings Judy and
I received during our lifetime, our children, and a bit about their first
Christmases.
Bret’s first Christmas was a quiet and
peaceful gathering with us and a few friends in Saigon in 1967. But just a month later we were in the center
of one of the biggest battles of the war, right there in the city – the TET
offensive. Sounds of war all around
us. I was not overly frightened but have
to admit we were worried, because Bret was not in good shape physically – he
was somewhat undernourished and sick, and we were concerned. But one of many serendipitous happenings and
encounters in our lives was to find a good doctor from the Seventh Day Adventus
hospital in Malaysia after they evacuated from Saigon, and with his skill and the help of friends who cared for Judy
and Bret, he fully recovered.
There was another
serendipitous encounter several years later when we lived in the Amazon jungle
in Peru. Bret, about 4 years old, had terrible
pain in his gut – and screamed throughout the night with every spasm. We could give little comfort. But it so happened that our friend, Dr. Jim,
was only a few miles from us and we rushed him to that jungle
hospital where Jim quickly diagnosed the problem and within minutes Bret was
undergoing emergency surgery which literally saved his life. Another doctor friend in Lima, when he heard
that story, said we were fortunate – he said he doubted we could have found a
doctor in all of Peru who would have diagnosed that condition so quickly and done
life-saving surgery on the spot. We were
blessed that Dr Jim was there – the right person, at the right time, and right
place - if not, it all could have been very different.
We wanted to
have another child, so we looked far away to Korea – to the Holt Children’s Service
where a social worker in an orphanage in Seoul picked out just the right little
infant girl to send to us. Mr. Kim brought her all the way across the ocean and
placed her in Judy’s arms in the Portland airport and when they arrived home in
Boise, Bret’s first words to her were, “hi, Sookie”. It could have been different – not all babies
thrive and survive in orphanages. Lani
was weak and sick when she came to us. But she soon was thriving in our family. We were blessed to have this wonderful gift from
God placed in our home.
Lani’s first Christmas was in Mexico – where
she took her first steps, and we enjoyed the Mexican custom of Las Posadas
following Joseph and the pregnant Mary on a donkey as they went through the
streets of Cuernavaca searching for a posada – an inn. Lani won’t remember that, but I remember
carrying her on my hip as we sang songs and walked along with the
procession.
Daniel was
born in the same jungle hospital in Peru where Bret’s life had been saved. His first Christmas, though, was on the farm
in Minnesota where we celebrated Christmas eve with his grandparents Arnold and
Inez Aaker. That might have been the
last time we had traditional Norwegian fare for the Christmas eve meal with my
mother, lutefisk and lefsa and all the other trimmings, so much enjoyed in the
Aaker family. My mom and dad were so happy and felt blessed to have us safely
at home. We were blessed to be there
with them. That was the exact time that
a huge earthquake destroyed the city of Managua, – an event that changed the
direction of our lives and pointed us in the direction of Nicaragua for the
next many years.
We were
visiting in Albuquerque in 2002 when I got the most shocking phone call of my
life. I was in the backyard of Bret’s
little house on 13th St and Daniel was on the other end of the call,
He said, “Dad, I have cancer in my eye”.
We were stunned. How do you
respond to that? You respond with prayer
and action. Thus began a long and
torturous journey for Daniel and for us as we tried to support and accompany
him.
Another
serendipitous encounter happened. The
doctor in Seattle brought Daniel’s case to a conference and someone there told
him about two Doctors in Miami who were experimenting with a novel treatment
for this exact cancer, and with some success.
The doctors’ names were Dr. Tse, and Dr. Benedeto – the Italian word for
“blessed”.
We and
Daniel headed for Miami. After several
weeks of Dr. Benedeto’s care and very painful treatments, Daniel flew back to
Seattle and we drove the long road back to Minnesota, arriving on Christmas eve
to our cold and undecorated farmhouse. I
remember that as a dark, lonely and somewhat forlorn Christmas and felt guilty
thinking of Daniel going home alone to an empty house in Seattle to recuperate,
having to look forward to the next chapter – surgery to remove his eye. We had prayer support from many and give
thanks now that Daniel is with us.
We are blessed.
And then you
wonderful grand kids came into our lives, one at a time, or in one case two at
a time! And now two babies in the next
generation, as well. You were all born
healthy – ten toes and ten fingers – cause for giving thanks to God, but we
know that others who are not born healthy are not a curse but also a
blessing. Life is precious. What a blessing for grandparents to see you
grow in mind, body and spirit toward your God-given potentials.
And we have
welcomed with joy Sarah, Rachel and Fil.
You have your own families and stories, and we rejoice to have you as
part of our family story, as well. There
may not be many more times when we are all able to gather like this for
Christmas, so I say, take in how blessed this time together has been and
continues to be.
Colin (age
7) has been learning in his Bible stories class how to give a blessing to
others. Maybe he wants to share how he
does that? (Colin made the sign of the
Cross and said, “mama, I bless you in the name of the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit.”)
So, let’s
give a blessing to each other. Put your
arm around the one sitting next to you, and simply say “May God bless you. I love you”
Jerry,
Christmas, 2021
