And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. – 1 Corinthians 13

Thursday was supposed to be a quick seven-hour drive to Jacksonville. But Interstate 95 was clogged and it took more than twelve. Ugh. Add to that two very bad food experiences at places we usually enjoy and we were more than ready to snooze the night away at a Hampton Inn.

So once again I’m defaulting to Christmas photos. Mostly mine but a few from our daughter Naomi.

Try not to miss the ones toward the end. Of course it’s not difficult to capture great images of David and Beks.

The slides begin with me reading the traditional Night Before Christmas poem. I made our longsuffering children (Andrew and Naomi) listen every year without fail and now David and Beks play the role of captive audience.

If you look carefully at all the photographs you will doubtless see joy. Love too, faith, and promise – because Christmas simply does not work on tradition or nostalgia alone. The joy comes from Jesus, and so does the love.

Hopefully, I’ll have some words to share once I have a little time to write. Until then, the story is in the pictures – DEREK