By Dickie Dixon

For Posterity’s Eyes  December birthdays:  21^st:  Maretha Lawrence, Rosette (Font) Hudgins 23^rd:  Jill (Thompson) Davis 24^th:  Joy (Dixon) Parker, Annette Escamilla, Louise Jetton 26th:  John Cantrell  27^th:  Anne Treadwell, Wanda (Dennis) Havard  28^th:  Ken Donaghue  29^th:  Marley Reaves, Vennessa Childers, Phil Herman 30^th:  Sheila White, Jana (Stewart) Schornberg 31^st:  Ann (King) Parker

The Teacher Got a Lesson  The year that we returned to seminary for me to finish my last twenty-four hours, while I was teaching my oldest daughter Sasha the Bible, I received a surprise I was not expecting.  She was not yet three but I felt it was important to begin teaching her about the Lord Jesus.  One of the things I was teaching her was about the purpose of the Incarnation and the death of Jesus on the cross.  A number of times I had taught her about the importance of Jesus’s coming and the significance of his death on the cross; now it was time to see if my teaching took.

So, I asked her one day:  “Now Sasha why did Jesus come?”  She replied without hesitation very decisively:  “Daddy, he came to raise his arms up.”  Immediately, after she said that I thought of innumerable pictures and crucifixes which pictured Jesus nailed to the cross.  And, quite frankly, I thought:  How succinctly could someone sum up the billboard, bigger-than-life main point of the reason Jesus came and why he died.  Tirelessly, every week preachers strive all across the world to keep this central focus in the lives of their members and their church.  And, what’s more she did it in eight words.  I was amazed that truly out of the mouth of babes His Spirit teaches us His wisdom.  Today as the world celebrates Christmas, Jesus is the reason for the season—as well as every season.  But that day, effortlessly Sasha made sure that the seminary student and the teacher got a lesson.  Merry Christmas!

Save the Date!  Dickie Dixon will discuss “Ten Good Reasons You Need to Use City Directories in Your Research,’ when he speaks to the Vernon Parish Genealogical Society on January 6, 2018 in the Vernon Parish Library in Leesville, Louisiana.  For more information, call the Vernon Parish Library.

The Newton County Historical Commission is sponsoring the Newton County Genealogy Conference on Saturday, February 10, 2017 in the Newton County Civic Center on 213 East Court Street.  For more information, call Dickie Dixon at (936) 240-8378, or e-mail him at dickie.dixon@hotmail.com

For book notices or reviews please send the author a complimentary copy to Kissin’ Kuzzins  P. O. Box 151001 Lufkin TX 75915-1001

Send your queries to dickie.dixon@hotmail.com by mail to Kissin’ Kuzzins P. O. Box 151001 Lufkin TX 75915-1001 or by phone to (936) 240-8378