Blog – Page 39 – Jeff Hampton, Writer

January 4, 2024

Preparing Room

For Wilshire Baptist Church

“It looks like home again.” That’s the comment one of us made last weekend after we put much of Christmas away while watching bowl games on TV. The latter was made all the easier after I took down the garland swags that were crowding the TV cabinet above the fireplace.

Not that we don’t love the decorations of Christmas. We do, and we go all out compared to some. In the carol “Joy to the World,” we sing “prepare Him room,” and we do that in every room of our house and outside as well, which means there is a lot to pack up and put away when Christmas is over.

December 28, 2023

Heaven’s Time

For Wilshire Baptist Church

This week we are celebrating what would have been my father’s 90th birthday. He missed it by about 18 months. Actually, he missed his goal of reaching 93 years, which is what his own father achieved and what I often heard him tell doctors he wanted to reach.

One of those doctors heard that and said, “Oh, so you don’t have any desire to go further than that?” Maybe the fact she was a neurologist who said he had mild cognitive impairment was enough for him to know if he reached 93, he might be at “the end of his useful life” as the saying goes for old cars and refrigerators. And maybe his self-assessment is what prompted him to not return to us when he was in the hospital before he died. He had lost consciousness and would respond with fluttering eyelids when we urged him to open his eyes, and he would squeeze our hands when asked, but that’s all he could do.

December 21, 2023

Lights in the Darkness

For Wilshire Baptist Church

Saturday night LeAnn and I enjoyed one of our newest Christmas traditions: Going to the annual Twinkle Tour at Lake Tawakoni State Park. We’ve grown fond of experiencing the lights in the darkness.

In case you don’t know, many of Texas’ state parks invite overnight campers to decorate their campsites, and then on selected nights the public can drive through and view the decorations. Lake Tawakoni State Park is just an hour away, so we decided to check it out three years ago and we keep going back, which in my mind makes it a “tradition.”