In December of 2020 I made a cross from an old Christmas tree and a yoke.  It started out as a joke.  I was trying to prepare for Christmas and in our side yard I spied our Christmas tree from the previous year. We had somehow missed the opportunity for the village to haul it away with the garbage and so I had meant to chop it up and burn it but never completed more than burning the branches.

I pulled that skinny stripped down tree into the house and said, “Well kids, it looks like no one is allowed to go to the store because of Covid.  But don’t worry. I saved our Christmas tree from last year!”  Then I went and grabbed some lights and started decorating it.  Somehow I thought this was funny, especially because my kids thought I was serious.

As I was stringing the lights on it I started to see a cross and before I knew it I was making my Christmas Tree Cross.  It was made of our old Christmas Tree, a yoke (for horses) and some leather straps with bells that say, “Holy to the Lord.”  Those had been a gift to my husband a previous year when God had in a undeniable way communicated to me that my husband was Holy to the Lord.

At the time I felt hurt by some of my husbands choices and I didn’t really think that my husband was anything other than stubborn like a horse or a mule. Those animals require a bit and a bridle to make them go where you want it to go.

The thing about God is that He is able to communicate himself clearly.  So even though I didn’t see my husband through God’s eyes, I did come to a deep conviction that God saw something in my husband that I didn’t.  Quite frankly, despite devastating personal circumstances, I held onto great hope because of God’s word to me.

In any case I needed a stand for my Christmas Tree Cross and it turns out the spare tire for my van was a perfect fit.  There just so happens to be a whole story that revolves around that spare tire and my Christmas tree cross.

Many years ago when my children were much younger I had a bad experience with my father-in-law while our family was on vacation in Myrtle Beach.  At the end of our vacation our van got a flat tire.  Long story short while my husband was getting the tire repaired my father-in-law  lost his temper and yelled at me in front of everyone at a restaurant. Then he and all of the other adults in our family left me and my kids standing in the parking lot of the restaurant.  I think they were about 4, 5 and 6 years old at the time, let’s just say they were young.  We were 45 minutes from our hotel and neither my husband nor my father-in-law ever came back to get us.

Fast forward a few years and my father-in-law convinced my husband that we needed to buy his old Toyota Sienna.  The first time I got into that van the flat tire light was on.  Even though it had been years since the incident and I had long since forgiven him I realized that I had never healed from that wound.  Being that he wasn’t saved yet I decided to use that flat tire light as a trigger to pray for his salvation.

What followed that day was years of my flat tire light going on and many many flat tires.  It became a whole thing of me and my kids sitting on the side of the road somewhere and praying for Papa.  It was a long season that quite frankly was frustrating and refining.

There is nothing like the feeling that you cannot go on any longer and you don’t see an end in sight.  When we got new plates for the van they gave me a temporary sticker for my plates and I kind of clung onto the word “temporary.”  Keeping the mainframe that my trials aren’t going to last forever has helped me get through many difficulties.

On October 6, 2020 I got new tires put on our van at Discount Tire.  After that my flat tire light didn’t go on anymore.  I was thrilled to be free from the whole flat tire fiasco.  The day I got my new tires was the day I stopped praying for my father-in-law.  It wasn’t that I didn’t care but the prayer trigger was gone. My Christmas tree cross is what prompted me to start praying for my father-in-law again. The spare tire was what I had come up with as a stand to hold up my Christmas tree cross and when I sat down in front of the cross I felt the Holy Spirit tell me to pray for my father-in-law.

On December 23, 2020 I was driving to the farm where I like to get raw milk.  It’s a bit out of the way but it is part of  a prayer drive the Lord put on my heart.

There are many strip clubs and adult bookstores along the way and huge billboards luring in the sex addicts.  Being that I have been wounded in this industry I have a high interest in praying.  Furthermore I have sought reconciliation from my husband and my ex-husbands all of who have wounded me and no one has felt the need to tend to my broken-heart.

So on December 23, 2020 while I was driving and praying I noticed a rainbow across the sky on  the other side of the highway. I made a quick sharp swerve to the shoulder in order to take a picture and that’s when I heard a big pop and  my tire rapidly deflated.  This is the rainbow I saw that day.  Rainbows can change pretty fast and this really was just the remnant of it because the blown out tire took all of my attention.

 When I was on the side of the highway with my flat tire I called discount tires and the person who answered the phone said, “Hi, this is the Senior Assistant Robert, how may I help you?”   

Immediately I thought,  “Wow! that guy has the same name as my Father-in-law!” 

While I was still calling for a tow truck I looked in the review mirror and to my surprise there was already a tow truck pulling up behind me.  The man walked right up and said, “Do you need help?”

Within minutes of the tire being blown out there was a man on bended knee on the side of the highway taking off the deflated tire and replacing it with the spare.

After he changed the tire I thanked him and drove to get my tire fixed.  That’s when things started to get a little strange. 

I walked in and I saw a sign that said, “WHAT’S YOUR WHEEL STORY?”  

I thought, “Wow! I do have a wheel story!”  I turned around and looked out the window at my car.  I noticed two umbrellas by the door.  God’s word talks about a latter rain.  God is merciful.  We are to expect him to pour down blessings from heaven.

I walked up to the counter and Senior assistant Robert who I had spoken with on the phone was there.  His coworkers were none other than Kevin, Jimmy and Matt.  So for those of you who don’t know their names matched up with my current father-in-law, my current husband, my ex-husband from my first marriage and my son. It was weird.

I have had so many flat tires and because I understand that this is about the salvation of souls I have gotten better at cutting straight to the point.  Matt walked out with me to my van so I could explain what happened.  On the way out there I asked him if he was a believer and follower of Jesus Christ.  He said that he was.

Immediately I said something like, “Would you believe God is allowing me to suffer through flat tires on a regular basis for the last several years because whenever I get a flat tire or the flat tire light goes on I pray for my father-in-law to get saved?”

He looked me right in the eye and said, “Whatever it takes!”

The immediate conviction I felt could have knocked me over.  It was right before Christmas and it was during Covid.  I love my father-in-law SO VERY MUCH!  But in that moment, I was having my own little pity party.  I was desperately sick from breast implant illness.  I was scheduled to have my breast implants taken out the next month.  It was two days before Christmas and if I’m honest I didn’t want to do whatever it took.

I thank God for sending a team full of people from Discount Tire all with my family members names to set me straight.  I’m not a hero of any sort at all.  I’m a believer who received mercy from Jesus and I want that for my family and friends who don’t know Jesus.  But I struggle to lay down what I want in order to do what the Lord wants.  This is part of a very long Christmas story and it’s been a cross for me.

There was a Menards next to the discount tire and I noticed the red flags flying overhead.  The Menards by our house has American flags flying overhead and so I felt a huge burden to pray for my father-in-law.  Red flags are a warning!

I apologized to the Lord for my selfishness and I prayed for my father-in-law to somehow see how very loved he is and to have a divine revelation from Heaven.  I prayed that the gospel would fall on the fertile soil of his heart.  When my van was all fixed we hurried off to complete our Christmas preparations.

The next day was Christmas Eve and we were supposed to have all of our kids and grandkids over for dinner.  My Mother-in-law and Father-in-law were not supposed to come over.  We had spent Christmas together with my in-laws as far back as the year 2000.  But in 2019 my father-in-law and I had a falling out and I basically got shunned.

The argument had been right before our family went to the Christian Alliance For Orphans conference in Kentucky.  We also saw the Ark Encounter.  I Prayed for my family back then too.

On December 24, 2020 I learned that my son and his wife had Covid and so they were not going to be able to come celebrate Christmas with us.  Then my husband told me that his parents had just called and they were unexpectedly stopping by.  I wasn’t feeling good because like I said I was suffering from breast implant illness.  But I was happy they were stopping by.

My Mother-in-law and Father-in-law walked in with masks on.  It was a bit awkward.  We hadn’t been on talking terms.  I had made my breast implant illness public and had done a GoFund Me and to top it all off it was COVID. We exchanged gifts and ate.

Then I told Bobbo that I had something I wanted to show him.  Together we went downstairs to my husband’s jamb room and I told him the story of the the Christmas Cross.  The man that I had always know as large and in charge stood meekly in front of this cross and listened to me tell him that Jesus loves rebels.

He looked at that yoke and explained to me that the railroads were built based off of the width of the Romans chariots and I asked him if he had ever heard of the Romans road to Salvation.  He hadn’t and so we talked about that.  This is only part of a larger Christmas narrative.

I have a page on my blog called God’s Road To Salvation for my Family.  The verses for the Romans road to salvation are in there and I highly recommend you seeing it.  There you will see the scripture that support the gospel story and I hope you will be encouraged that God is moving heaven and earth to show his love.  He took me back to my Grandparents home in that part of the story and gave me a Christmas tree.

All in all Christmas Eve 2020 was a wonderful night.  I was thankful and encouraged to see what the Lord was doing.  I wish I could say my father-in-law received Christ that night.  But he didn’t.  He listened and I pondered that in my heart.

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.  As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him,  for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?  And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”  Romans 10:9-15 

**I’m adding in a short video of  Alissa’s High School Graduation. So much has happened over the last few months and so many of you weren’t able to join us for the graduation ceremony. If you are able please Donate