Tuesday, December 16, 2025
      (click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Finn’s world
I will bless the LORD at all times;
   his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD.
There are days when I don’t want to go to sleep, ever. The world around me calls out to be explored. Learning to use my hands with all ten fingers takes concentration and perseverance. I’m curious about whatever tastes good, which is just about everything. I’m curious to see what happens when I lick things. Sometimes my tongue burns a little, and sometimes I just want more and more.
Mom finds ways to help me see new things. She props me up on blankets and pillows and then gets down so I can look her right in the eye. I think I’ll grow up loving books, because I love being read to. I try to turn the pages, but that doesn’t work because I have no idea when to turn them. They just feel good in my hungry hands. Mommy’s words, and Daddy’s too, sound rich with happiness. I wonder what the words all mean, but they make me feel satisfied almost like my food.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy.
I get to see pictures of myself all the time. I’m learning the word “smile” and realize that smiling isn’t difficult at all, it comes naturally. Mommy sings sometimes, usually songs about Jesus loving me, and Jesus being born in a manger, and twinkling little stars. I close my eyes and listen, and then I fall asleep pretty quickly. Or if I just woke up and she sings, I feel my eyes get wider and then I clap my hands.
I wonder if there’s a way I can help Mommy and Daddy with their work. They don’t ask me, but it seems like fun to me, and they don’t always look they’re having fun. Wouldn’t they like somebody to join them and help with some of the easier stuff? I could do that, I think, at least when my hands get a little stronger and I can move them around to do what I want them to do.
I love my nativity. It was Jasper’s and maybe before that Miles’, and it still belongs to all of us band of brothers. But I hang onto the donkey, he just feels good in my hand. Sometimes we watch little movies about when Jesus was born, what everybody calls Christmas. I don’t know what that word means, but I am starting to get to know Jesus. He loves me, and he puts his hand on my head, and then I feel really good.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
   and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
The LORD redeems the lives of his servants.
Daddy and Miles went away on a mission to South America and Mommy and Jasper played with me the whole time they were gone. We had fun! I ate and ate, and helped Jasper put up the Christmas tree. Whatever that is.
There are times when I feel bad. I learned when I was just born how to cry and scream when that happens. Mommy and Daddy and my brothers try to help me then. They cuddle me and coo at me and kiss me all over.
They giggle in my face and try to make me laugh. Usually all this touching and talking really helps, unless I just plain hurt, like I want to burp or something. Then nothing helps, not even when they tickle my feet or my belly, not until they pat me on the back and carry me around on their shoulders, and I go “BURP!”
I’m getting pretty good at smelling stuff, and then I get hungry. I have a couple of teeth, but they aren’t much use yet, so I drink milk and eat soft stuff as long as I can get it. But smelling isn’t always so good. When I smell bad and Mommy wrinkles her nose at me, I try not to use my nose much. I just open my eyes a little wider and hope my charm will make up for that awful smell. And usually it does.
Mommy and Daddy are going to teach me how to pray, after I can say thing like their names, and my name, and all the parts of my body and stuff. But they pray with me now, and I’m learning a lot even though I can’t tell them. We’ll get around to that soon enough. Now I just love Jesus, and when I hear that he’s going to be born again soon, I think I’m just like him, born once and then every day I get born again. That’s a pretty good prayer itself.
I love you, Jesus.
Come, O Lord, do not delay.
(Zephaniah 3, Psalm 34, Matthew 21)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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