Christmas Past

On a ministry trip recently I found myself back in east Texas in the hometown where I grew up. I turned off the loop to the old Ford Chapel Road and then made a left on Jones Street. I almost stopped at the top of Jones Hill. My friends and I used to race our bikes down that hill. One day we got the bright idea of tying a rope onto a wagon behind one of our bikes. All went well until we tried to make the right hand turn onto Cunningham Street where the passenger in the wagon took a great spill. The end resulted in blood and scrapes. We never tried that again.

Just two houses down on the left after turning onto Cunningham Street is the house where I grew up. I stopped in front and could visualize the brightly lit Christmas tree in our living room. I recalled years and years of gathering in that room and opening gifts. There is my mother all aglow from her favorite time of year. Then my grandfather and grandmother along with my brother and sister. We lost my sister in 1976 in a drowning. She was only four years old. I recall years where I received bikes, football uniforms, a Mr. Quarterback, bb guns, boots and my all time favorite gift of an electric typewriter when I was in high school because I dreamed of being a writer. My dream has come true. I also remember the times I stole away into that living room to read one of my grandmother's hundreds of books. I took a crack at such authors as Charles Dickens and then read the Bible a little off and on.

I spent most of my growing up years in that house. Wonderful memories still fill my mind. As I drove on past the house I drove around the neighborhood where I rode my bike every square mile of the Englewood Subdivision. I saw the evidence of those who decorate their houses. Our whole neighborhood got in on this. People from all over Lufkin drove to our neighborhood to look at the lights. When Brenda and I lived in the area and had children we did the same. We would pile the boys in the car and drive around while they drank hot chocolate on Christmas Eve. This is a tradition we still do today even though Taylor is seventeen, Tanner is fourteen, Tucker is thirteen, and Turner is nine.

I spent less than five hours in my hometown but I am thankful for the memories. There are so many people who touched my life. I am grateful for those who invested in my life spiritually. I am thankful for the people of Denman Avenue Baptist Church who trained me, loved me, believed in me, prayed for me, and ministered to me over the years. I still call that church home. I have not been there in a year and a half but those people mean the world to me. My pastor Charles Roberts did so much for me. All those who taught me Sunday School, Church Training, and special Bible studies. I am grateful for all those who supported me along the years with more prayers and financial gifts as I started out in ministry. You may take this boy out of east Texas but you cannot take the east Texas out of this boy.

There were some sad times in that home. Like the first Christmas without my grandfather after we lost him to leukemia. After I went to college they sold the house and Christmas never seemed the same again. I always remember that house on Cunningham Street and the wonderful memories of Christmas past.