Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!

Shop Bambootique

I just added another link to my "Check this out" section. It is a link to a really cool online store that sells jewelry, purses, scarves, paper... One of my dear college friends, Beth is one of the owners of this store. The story behind how she got started comes from her worldwide travels. She traveled around the world for her work and always came back with unique purses, jewelry or other items that received many compliments and she received many requests to find similar items for others.

This sparked an idea in Beth to begin a business where she purchases items in foreign countries (mostly developing countries) and sells them in the U.S. Everything is fair trade and you can feel good about your purchase, not only because you've found something unique, but also because you are helping someone in another country earn money they might not otherwise have.

Great place for Christmas shopping!

The Other Secular Reminder

So I said I had another reminder of why we need Christmas and this one I found while reading the newspaper on Sunday morning. I read an interview with A.J. Jacobs who wrote the book "The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible." The main story of the book is that Mr. Jacobs tried to follow all of the moral codes of the Bible from the dietary laws to even throwing pebbles at an adulterer.

The idea of the book is really interesting in itself but the most profound part is this quote,

"I had a stapled list of all the 700 rules...but it was impossible - I couldn't keep them all in my mind at the same time... Naturally, I broke rules all the time, despite my best efforts."

We are commanded in Matthew to be perfect as our father in heaven is perfect, so we know this perfection is the expectation of God. Now, here is a man who deliberately was trying to follow every law in the Bible and he could not do it. How much more do I break the laws because I am not consciously trying to follow all 700 of the ones in the moral code. I can't obey to that degree! No one can!

This is why Christ came into the world. This is why He was born on the Earth. Jesus did live a perfect life and because of that was able to be a spotless sacrifice for our sins and pay for our inability to follow all of the laws. All the more reason to celebrate at Christmas! He came to be a perfect sacrifice because I can not be perfect by my own efforts to meet God's requirements.

Secular Reminders of Why We Need Christmas

Every Decmeber, I struggle in search of a fresh understanding of Christmas. I get so frustrated with the commercialism of Christmas and fight to keep from becoming swept into what Christmas means to our culture. This weekend, I was surprised to find two reminders of why Christmas is so incredibly important to our current culture.

The first was through watching the movie Children of Men. While I don't endorse the prevelant violence or continuous profanity, (or the ending for that matter!), the overall idea of the movie makes it a powerful"Christmas" movie. The main plot of the movie is that there has been infertility in the planet for the past 18 years and the world has become chaotic and basically anarchy in most places other than England, where life is also extremelly bleak.

But in the middle of the grayness and depression, a woman is found to be pregnant! As people learn of this miracle, they are in awe and full of HOPE! This baby may change the course of the world. There is now a chance that life will return to the way it used to be. Laughter could return, the sunshine might be noticed, and people might once again connect.

When Christ was born, he brought this same kind of hope. Relationships can be restored through Him, we can experience true joy even in the middle of suffering, and our eyes can be opened to the world as He created it.

When this baby was born, the gunfire, swearing, shouting, and even the running stopped. Everyone paused as the little girl was carried by and for a minute, faces became less hard and all eyes looked at the baby.

This December, I hope to remember what that would be like to keep my eyes focused on the Christ child. To look at Him for hope and all of the promises that His incarnation means.

I know many of you who read this blog (are there many who read? anyway...) have your own precious little babies to remind you of the hope in children and especially in the baby Jesus, but thought I would share a sweet picture of Asher when he was a month old. What hope and joy he has brought us too.

(Oh yeah, I was going to share two reminders...I'll save the other one for another time.)

A Rock Castle Thanksgiving

Walter's family has a really fun tradition of meeting at a cabin in Missouri for Thanksgiving. This is not just a rustic roughin' it cabin, but a true place to relax, as you can see. We've been doing this since my first Thanksgiving with Walter - before we were even engaged - and I really look forward to it every year. We don't get in our cars for 4 days (other than when Grams and Grandpa took Asher to see the horses at the front of the park ) and we just enjoy the beauty of our surroundings and each other's company while escaping the frenzy of Christmas sales and shopping.

This is our whole crew (minus Asher who slept through Thanksgiving dinner -oh! and Walter was there too). My sister joined us, along with Walter's parents, grandparents, aunt and uncle and 2 cousins, and another cousin with his new wife!

Here we are in the "backyard" of the cabin. The view is incredible and this is where we even had an afternoon bonfire one day and everyone took a turn reading a Junie Bee book - apparently a popular series among 2nd graders.

We got all bundled up to take a walk and this is how we started off. By the way, mittens with out thumbs are a really cool thing! Asher could not get them off and just kind of walked around not knowing what to do with his hands!

So...after about 1/8th of a mile, this is how our walk turned out.

There were several football games played. This was the beginning of the Ultimate Turkey Bowl and this is a picture of both teams!

Asher was helping his daddy's team win by strategically moving one of the endzones.

Walter loves crafts and he led this project of decorating gingerbread men.

One of the best parts was having time to relax and read books.
But now we're back to the real world and ready to enjoy the Christmas season.

I am Thankful for....

This year, I think I need two lists of things that I am thankful for. One list is of things that are easy to be thankful for. They are the automatic ones that I think of when I count my blessings. The other list is of things that I truly am thankful for, but they are bittersweet. This list comes out of the hard times and I can only be thankful for them after contemplating God's ultimate work in my life. So here they are:

These things are easy to be thankful for:

1. God's Grace and Amazing Love

2. My wonderful Husband who encourages me not to give in to the easy way.

3. My sweet little boy, Asher, who has a smile and laugh that reminds me I am blessed.

4. Our families and friends who love and support us.

5. The "coincidences" of life that have allowed me to work part-time and still experience the joys and camaraderie of being a mom.

These are those hard things that I am still thankful for:

1. Heaven has become a sweeter place to me this year and I look more forward to being there.

2. We have good friends who personally understand the same hard times.

3. My parents are missionaries and live in Ethiopia (and don't come home during the Holidays.)

4. My husband has a lot of perseverance to study long days and nights.

5. God makes something beautiful out of pain. ("Consider it pure joy my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1: 2-4)

Perspectives

I've added a link on the sidebar to check out. This link is to the Bloomington Perspectives class. For those of you who live in Bloomington (or nearby) this link is for you! I have been involved with this incredible, life-changing class for almost ten years and I will never forget the truths I learned and continue to be reminded of every year.

The class is an eye-opening journey through the Bible to see what God's heart is for the world. Beginning in the Old Testament and continuing through the rest of the Bible and early history to what is going on around the world today, I guarantee your life will be forever changed if you journey through the 15 week course.

Literally, it will change your perspective on life to understand that God's plan for the world from the very beginning was to bring people into relationship with Himself and to bring glorify to His name. Throughout the 15 weeks, you will hear seminary professors, pastors, missionaries, and ordinary people share on different topics and you'll also get to be accountable to read deep articles related to the topics.

The link gives more details, but let me know if you want more info!!!