Will officiated at Jacob and Mary's wedding

Sweet William's Feast...

He's the love of my life.  My rock.  We've been married for 25 years and I can't imagine my life without him. He's very affectionate.  I love all of his hugs and kisses.  He gives his all to everything he does. He's thoughtful and even if he doesn't always say anything, you can be sure that if he knows you, you're in his prayers.  My Dad won't often call on Bill to say prayer because my Dad wants to get to bed sometime in the next eight hours!  The food on the dinner table will rarely be piping hot because he always seems to have one more thing to say to the Lord.  And really, what's more important?  Hot food or a heartfelt talk with your Father?  He's wise.  So often, I can't see the problem with certain actions and then he'll elaborate on the consequence of those decisions. Ahhh... now I get it.  He adores his kids and is the strong Dad they need him to be. There's nothing he wouldn't do for them. He's such a good guy.  I wish you could all get to know him. I love him so much it breaks my heart.     

Will always has his feast on our Xmas Eve.  As most of you know, I don't have any attachment, whatsoever, to December 25th. Any time I can get my family under the same roof is cause for celebration.  So, tomorrow will be present opening day. (And wouldn't you know it?  It'll be white.  It's always white on my Xmas.  I think everyone else should wait to celebrate with me!) 

This year, Will insisted he make things as easy as possible for me so that I was rested for our big day.  I think the guy in him sees all of the kids creativity when it comes to feasts and just can't wait to give it a try.  In the theme of keeping it simple, he recycled some of John's idea with boarding the windows up with some loose lumber- John used PVC pipes.  And he used John's gate. He had me cook up a big pot of... gruel.  I guess that's what you'd call it. (I boiled some water and added some oats- didn't have enough- the kids would have been thrilled with oatmeal.  They're weird that way. So I added... all the stale cereal, crackers and chips in the pantry.  Been meaning to clean that out for a while now.  Giggle.  You know, around here, the kids hate to throw food away, but they also hate to be the one to discover that something is stale.  If it's a possibility, they'd rather someone else discover that fact and testify to that effect. By the time the pot was full, it was a thick, gooey, gluey, grey, glumpy... well, it looked very bad, indeed.) He divided the gruel between two pots and set them out on a long table with styrofoam plates and a ladle.  A big, military ladle. 

He went out to invite his "guests" in by carrying a big stick and using a loud bark.  The man has a set of lungs on him.  He transformed himself into the prison warden and got them into single file. If the giggles were anything to judge by, I don't think anyone was too intimidated. "You know the routine.  I hear any complaints, you'll be eating through a straw!"  So when he said, "Next!" the next person in line would file in through the curtain and down to the table.  He asked if they wanted turkey or chicken.  Whatever they asked for, he gave them the opposite- 'cause that's how it works in the pen. And of course, the gruel was the same in both pots so it didn't really matter.  You should have seen the look on their faces when that gelatinous mess would hit their plates.  They would stand there and stare it... and then ask for a spoon!  Will would bark at them and say they'd get a spoon when he decided to give them a spoon- now get in your seat!  Finally, they all sat there at the table looking like a pack of kicked dogs. So sad.  We had the Bible reading, but I'm afraid the kids were too distressed to pay proper attention. 

Will hops up after the prayer and says he'll clean those plates away, now.  The kids were so relieved and when he brought out a stack of eight Little Caesar's pizzas with eight orders of crazy bread, I thought there might be a riot.  You should have heard the whoops of joy!  Pizza!  And he had about eight bottles of different flavored pop- so they could have anything they asked for.  As is his custom, he gave the kids chocolate for his gift. Two big bars, this year. Mine even have almonds in them! I made a pan of Mountain Mama Mudslide for dessert and, aside from the gruel, that was my only contribution to his feast.  That was so sweet and considerate of him to be especially careful to make it a breeze for me. 

Scripture reading: Romans 6:16-18
"Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either to sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness.
But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness."

Well folks, as unsavory as slavery is, that's what we all are- slaves.  The good news- we can choose who our master will be.