TOL’s 12 Gifts of Christmas!
Gifts 1 and 2 are up for grabs today! To throw your name in the hat, leave a comment on this guest post. (To leave a comment without playing, just add, “No gifts, please!”) I’ll announce the recipients tomorrow evening.
Regular Gift: My worship team and I record your favorite Christmas song.
White Elephant Gift: I leave an IYKWIM/TWSS/Ahem comment on your blog.
(What’s this all about?)
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Today’s guest post comes from Shawn Smucker. His most recent book, My Amish Roots, explores the roles of family, death, life, tradition, and legacy against the backdrop of his Amish ancestry. I think you’ll enjoy his thoughtful writing as much as I did! –Tamara
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The Sheep Graveyard
When I was about nine years old, my cousins and I found a graveyard close to my grandma’s house. A little white fence surrounded the graves – it kept the sheep in, and I guess the sheep’s job was to keep the grass cut short. We climbed in through the fence and took a closer look at the headstones.
The first stone I looked at didn’t have any years on it, just a name followed by the inscription, “6 years old.” We spread out and started calling out the names and ages that we read on the gravestones. The sheep kept chewing the grass, drifting away from us as we meandered through the cemetery. All thirty or forty stones were markers for children.
