14 Days 'Till Christmas Season

Thursday, November 9, 2006

An Indian summer day in November – Collette wondered if it would ultimately cancel the Thanksgiving snow, if such a thing were possible that year in the first place. The snow cycle in St. Louis over the past few years had provided scarce quantities. The last super good snow had been accompanied with ice in early 2002.

There was silly business at the office that day. Somehow the topic of “being slain in the Spirit” had come up.

“Have you ever been slain in the Spirit, Ivy?” Sinai asked.

“Well, yes, I was,” Ivy said, recalling her early days as a Christian. “Have you?”

“No, no, I haven’t,” Sinai having come from a family tree of Presbyterian ministers. “Judah, have you?”

“I have,” Judah chuckled, also recalling his earlier days.

“Well, what do you know?” Sinai said. “I never knew these things before.”

“Well, you never asked,” Judah laughed.

Being “slain in the Spirit” was not something practiced by the Presbyterians. Though they were also filled with the Spirit, they were never slain in it.

“Have you ever been slain in the Spirit?” Sinai asked Collette next.

“No; I’ve been Presbyterian pretty much all my life.”

“Well, she musn’t be very spiritual then,” Sinai roared with laughter. “I wonder if Rosemary’s ever been slain in the Spirit.”

There was no answer from her office.

“Well, I think we know the answer to that,” Sinai concluded. “She’s just as spiritual as Collette is.”

They later found out that Rosemary had been eating lunch with the Cross’ on Wally’s picnic table in the back at the time, and had not heard the conversation. When told about it later by Ivy, she said that she had never even heard of being slain in the Spirit, seeing as it was never mentioned in the Scriptures. So she was spared hearing the joke about her “spiritual state”.

And there were donuts, John Piper sermons, and baseball clips throughout the day. Another plus: Collette was not feeling as tired, being just past her seventeenth week. Life could be tiring those days.

Meanwhile, she was looking forward to setting up the little Christmas tree, Christmas lights on the balcony, and her 12 Days of Christmas boxes from Ivy. The 77 degree weather that day had not been exactly festive, but Christmas was still coming.