Christmas – Blanket

   A soft red blanket waits for me on the bed or the back of a chair. It was a Christmas gift, soft and fuzzy, and perfect size to toss over my shoulders. On these cold wintry mornings when I am reluctant to leave my warm and comfortable bed to get up and face the day, that blanket becomes the last warmth that I take with me to take the dogs out or to pull myself together for the day. This is the same blanket that is the perfect temperature when I am sick or need one more layer.
   The Psalmist wrote Psalm 147, including how the “earth is covered with snow like a blanket of wool,” just in obedience to God’s word. As the snow flurries fly, that blanket of warmth is an extra comfort and source of heat. If you have ever been chilled, you know that it is a condition that causes your muscles to tighten and restrict the movement. But when you become warm, your eyes may grow heavy with the tiredness that hits. Your body relaxes and you find yourself at rest. The Peanuts character Linus was always a great demonstration of this. Linus carries around his blue blanket out and on for the ball game, during school, activities etc…
   If the snow is snowed in obedience, then how much more can I show to the maker of the snow itself? A blanket is provided for the earth while it prepares itself for a new year. We have the option of doing the same thing. We can be growing, preparing, sending our roots deep and seeking out nutrients, even while there is a blanket of snow. But, when we are covered in the blanket of faith in Christ, we can relax again and find that the security is true and real.

Red Blanket

There are some friends that become family, sisters and brothers, parents and children, by choice. One of these, my sister as surely as if we shared the same blood and DNA building blocks, gave me a red blanket for Christmas several years ago. Selected for it’s softness and gentle feel, the color was the perfect shade of an autumn red, warm and vibrant not garish. I remember unwrapping this blanket and feeling the texture, feeling my fingers sink into the threads and the warmth starting to build.

Somewhere along the years, this blanket has become much more than a blanket. My sister, who gave this gift to me, lives eight long hours away. There are times when I need her hug, her warmth and I wrap myself up in the blanket and feel her hug. When I have been sick, the threads catch my body heat and hold it close. My heat reflected back in helped my fevers break, chills to stop, and healing to begin. The blanket has been something I wrap around my shoulders, hold in my arms, and pull over my head when my head hurts, my heart hurts, or life stresses get to be too much and I want to hide.

It’s really just a blanket, but it’s the love and prayers that have happened there that have made it more like the hug of my sister.