Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites—everyone whose heart God had moved—prepared to go up and build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. All their neighbors assisted them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuable gifts, in addition to all the freewill offerings.

• Ezra 1:5-6

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

• Luke 11:11-13

Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

• James 1:16-18

These two Christmases were consecutive years, the last year in Germany and the last year in the Army.

The last Christmas in Germany was highlighted by our friends in Krumbach, Bavaria wanting us to celebrate Christmas in the German fashion.  They had fresh snow, and I got to ride their sled down the neighborhood hill with the boys (3 ½ years and 6 months) we had a blast although I had a hard time with the steering and brakes.  No one got hurt.

We listened to the church choirs singing Carols, and we sang along, half in German and half in English.  We did some last-minute shopping, and we picked up a soup tureen set to remind us of Bavaria.  The only bowl that broke was the turtle bowl, about ten years later.  We had steak tartar, and the Christ Child came while we ate in the kitchen.  I think neighbors came in the back door to put presents around the tree and decorate the tree.  The tree remained bare until the Christ Child had visited.  I still have the candle stand and the original candle.  We never had the heart to light the original candle, but we have gotten other candles for the stand.

Then we drove back to Karlsruhe on Christmas morning.  I made an excuse of having to go to the bathroom so that I could check to see if Santa had come while we were gone.  He had.  So, it was flying up four flights of stairs, back down, and then loaded down with a suitcase as we walked back up.  The boys loved the Muppet Show and Santa had gotten them Ralph the Dog and Kermit the Frog (stuffed animals), among many things.  In the early years, it was a tradition for them each to get a new stuffed animal or puppet (Muppet).

The next year was remarkable from the standpoint that we were in the USA.  We were in Watertown, MA, with Harvard University visible out the front window of our second-floor apartment (the hayloft of the old stables at the Watertown Arsenal).  We had both children understanding what Christmas was (the commercial industry understanding – meaning that they knew they got toys), but we were too far from family to visit with anyone.  I was sending out as many resumes as I could and I got four site visits and a fifth request after I had chosen one offer – a very bad mistake.

Besides discovering Toys R Us and Child’s World, stores that were not around when we left for Germany, I remember a giant gorilla stuffed animal in a wooden crate.  We wrapped the wooden crate.  Our younger son sat on the wooden crate, and I finally spied what he was doing.  After we put the children to bed, I lifted the wooden crate, and all the wrapping paper fell off the crate.  While we were not looking, he would slide a hand down the side of the crate while sitting on the crate.  And he took off every piece of tape.  I caught him as he had finished, but it took lifting the crate for the wrapping paper to fall off.  He was only a year and a half old, but he knew how to operate the stereo.  He would plug in the headphones, turn on the turntable or reel-to-reel, then crawl into my papasan chair with the headphones on and take a nap.  But with the sneaky way he unwrapped presents, we had to be extra careful.

It was in that apartment that the neighbors knew there was something different about us.  We went to church on Sunday mornings.  We gave our children good gifts under the tree, but we tried to teach them in the right way to live their lives.  Yet, it is always an individual decision to stay on that path.

It is odd that there have been forty-five Christmases since then, and almost all are a blur.  We were especially invited to a church in Memphis, TN when working on the NASA project in Mississippi, and we saw a wonderful performance that was being broadcast on television.  Adrian Rogers was the pastor of that church at the time.  We had our one big Mannheim Steamroller experience, front row, center (not counting the orchestra pit).  And we had a Christmas or two with relatives.  When you look forward, it seems to take forever, but when you look back, you realize how fleeting life can be.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.