i hope you had a warm christmas with those dearest to you. maybe with good food and funny games and thoughtful gestures and a lot of togetherness. those are always the things i love about christmas most. it's usually just a day of a lot of warmth and rest, i think. i know not everyone has a christmas like that, and for some people christmas might actually be a time of pain... over loved ones lost or divorce or other hard family things and relationships or financial struggles. the beautiful thing about whichever kind of christmas we had, even if there was hurt there too, it doesn't change the hope that is behind christmas, the hope that all of advent (which means 'coming') has been building up to.. the strangest, most wonderful occurrence: God in the form of a baby, a vulnerable infant dependent on His parents, in a totally human condition, coming to earth to save us and teach us a new way of living. it is so odd and so extraordinary. a story wrapped in so much peace and kindness and gentleness and wonder and hope. like mary, the mother of God, let us continue to "treasure up all these things and ponder them in our hearts" (luke 2:19).
revelation 11:15
amen & amen!
(^^world's greatest christmas card award goes to the schierkolk fam... am i right or am i right?!)
christmas last year HERE, the year before HERE, the year before HERE, the year before HERE, and the year before HERE. (haha, i've been bloggin for a long time! actually christmas 2010 marks my very first blog post ever, so... cool little blog anniversary ;))