Winter Solstice…. Just A Very Special Day

December 21st was a very special day. During an evening shoot with the Big Brother organization, I began to notice a faint smell… Turned out to be the city septic backing up. We had to scramble to get furniture and prints and frames out of the way, and our studio quickly began to look like a tornado had hit as we pushed everything out of the way and waited for the calvary to show up and get things going back down the drains. Thankfully the floor is not level, so it all ran to the door and away from the working end of the studio. The actual damage was very limited and confined to the entry way and back storage area. A blessing in disguise. In the midst of it all, after the city employees and the family and the landlord left, there was my wife and I, standing in the middle of this great mess, in the middle of the Christmas Rush… I held her in my arms and it occurred to me that some day we’ll look back on this and laugh. I swung the camera around for a rare change from the norm, and took a picture of us both.

The studio will be remodeled, carpet and tile replaced, new props, new whatever, and eventually things will get back to business. Life will go on. But guess what?! All of this is negated by one, very, very special event that took place today…… drum roll………….ratatatatatatatatatatatattatata. On December 21st, 2005. At 9:15 in the morning, my little boy accepted Christ into his heart! 🙂

He was reading the story of Baby Moses with Kari that morning for school, and in his books there are questions at the end.

Here was that question: ‘When we belong to God, He has special plans for us. You belong to your family, and when you accept Jesus as your savior, you belong to God in a special way. Have you done that, and would you like to do that now?’ That sparked a conversation that we’ve never really had with Logan. We’ve always talked to him about Jesus, but we wanted this to be something he’d come to in his own heart. He said he’d never really prayed to Jesus to ask Him as his Savior, just to say thanks for things, but that he’d never realized he needed to actually ask him into his heart. This was his prayer that Kari helped him pray:

“Dear Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God. I believe that you died on the cross for my sins and that you rose again. Please forgive me of my sins. Thank you for taking them away from me.. Please come into my heart and be Lord of my life. You are my Savior. I Love you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

Kari said they had a great big bear hug afterwards. I realize he is 6 years old, but he came upon this of his own decision, and it’s important. From here we grow closer to Christ, right?

See, I’m not going to remember December 21st as the day that half of our studio flooded or that it was the Solstice. Everything else is completely negated, it’s void of any relevance in my mind, because this is the day my boy became part of a bigger family, the day Christ answered an earnest prayer of mine…and it was an answer of eternal value. 🙂 Merry Christmas!