As the page turns...

A new year's coming. I must be getting old. I've barely gotten used to 2012! It's gonna be a big year ahead. Some pretty major changes, which I'll probably be sharing a bit about soon. (No, not getting married or anything.) :P

It was a good Christmas. I think some of the tragedies - Newtown and other things closer to home - actually helped get the focus on spiritual things rather than on the fluffy stuff. To think about others rather than ourselves.

Sometimes the greatest gifts are the smallest things. The things we already have, but perhaps need to rediscover. The cozy, quiet room downstairs. The spontaneous gifts from small friends. The thrift store finds.

There's this wanting to hold onto time that's so quickly slipping away. I dream sometimes of driving, unable to stop. There's a terror in it - a realization that I'm no longer in control. Waking reality is much the same. No matter how hard I press the brakes, I cannot change the speed of life, but only the speed I live.

I realize life's shortness when I look ahead to eternity. I realize its importance when I look and see those traveling with me.

I want to be "all there." I want to show people that they matter. I want to be willing to slow down, to make conversation deeper than the "how are you" and "good, how bout you?" that repeats without meaning week after week. I want to do hard things. I want to stop wishing other people would change, and simply live how Christ has called me to live.

I want to glory in the small things, in the joy and illumination of thinking God's thoughts after Him, in making things with my hands, in enjoying beauty and creativity.

I'm thankful for the gospel of grace. Without it, I would be doomed to fail in any resolution I could make. I'll still fail, and fail often, but thanks be to God, I am made perfect in Him! Looking to Him is the reason for hope; He is the one I follow even when I realize I can never follow perfectly. Anything good achieved through me is His gift, His work.

Thanks be to God.

Merry Christmas Adam!

For an explanation of the title, you can see last year's Christmas Adam post here. :) Yes, my lame attempt at humor. Sorry.

This Christmas, I've been thinking about Genesis. Adam and Eve. The tower of Babel.

I love how God has woven HIStory together in scripture - His divine plan, the light shining forth against the darkness.

~ ~ + ~ ~

Adam. The man who wanted to be God. The bringer of sin. The man of innocence, corrupted by pride. The man who brought death to every man.

Jesus. The Author, the Light, became Adam's Son. The bringer of righteousness. Man of sorrows, humble, small. The Man who brought life to souls corrupted by darkness.

I doodled this while waiting for my last exam to start. :)

Babel. The fist that was shaken. The worship of stars. Created worshiping created, subjected to futility and frustration.

The Stable. The place where the Servant King was born. Where the star shone in worship of the Creator who lay wrapped in a manger. Light for all men.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.

Luke 2:14

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Have a blessed Christmas, friends! Let us worship the Saviour whose strength is made perfect in weakness, whose humility destroys our pride, and treasure these things in hearts that have been transformed by His light.

Christmas Time is [almost] Here!

Ah... what a wonderful time of year! Crazy it's halfway through December already, and only 10 days until Christmas. Didn't even realize that until I just counted! Life is going at breakneck speed, though I'm trying to enjoy and give thanks for every moment. Only one exam to go - after Monday I'll be able to totally get into Christmas mode.

We decked out our tree last Sunday - the most gorgeous tree we've ever had, if I do say so myself. :) I'll see if I can find a picture of it soon. Such a blessing too - we got a really good deal from a local homeschooling family who grows Christmas trees.

I love the Christmas baking...

Yummy date balls I made this week!

The last minute presents being finished and wrapped up...

Baby sweater and hat I did a while ago... not actually a Christmas gift. :)

 The snowflakes coming at last... and the hoping for a white Christmas, so rare here...

The view from the window right now - it's still coming down out there!

The joy and nostalgia of listening to Christmas albums that have been played every year for as long as I can remember: Boney M., Alabama, Kenny G., Bing Crosby...

I'm thankful for the time being spent with my wonderful, crazy family, just simply being together. It won't be forever, and I'm realizing what a gift a close family is. The most wonderful gifts are not the ones seen and touched, but the ones that are revealed in the heart and known through the Spirit, brought by the Prince of Peace.

first post of 2012

Somehow as the years go by, the numbers associated with them mean a little less. Time flies faster all the time, but I want to live fully in every moment, though I sometimes feel that I am drifting through my days.

It was a beautiful Christmas... though the child in me had hoped for snow. Isn't it exasperating when your grandparents are praying against snow while you're praying for it? ;) It was so good to spend time with family, to indulge in chocolatey goodness with a little less restraint than normal - but most of all to meditate on the magnitude of what Christ's coming means. I'm still getting back into keeping track of what day of the week it is after a relaxed Christmas break... but things are slowly starting back up.

I'm looking forward to a year of big changes, many which are not entirely known to me yet, but here are a few goals I have for the year ahead....

The first three biggest, most obvious ones...

- Finding a job
- Finishing my current courses
- Going to university (1st time going to a brick and mortar school!)
all if God wills...

And some others that range from vital to trivial, but I nonetheless aim to do...

- complete several sewing projects
- start a prayer journal
- declutter
- paint my room
- spend more time doing art
- exercise daily
- be more intentional about studying my Bible
- finish my current book list
- cook at least one meal a week
- look for more ways to minister to my family and my church family
- evaluate my attitudes and actions through Gal 5:22-23

 

The Light still shines over the place where the Lord resides. May we glow brightly amidst the darkness of this world! He is our hope, the one who leads our steps, ever faithful. To Him be the glory!

Brown paper packages tied up with string...

Wrapping presents is one of the most enjoyable parts of Christmas for me this year. There's the anticipation of watching a loved one opening each gift, and the fun of making a creative package that reflects a bit of the recipient's personality, as well as my own style. I loved the simplicity of using brown paper for wrapping... not to mention it brings that wonderful Sound of Music tune to mind... ;)

Here are a few of the packages that are now sitting under our tree, waiting to be opened... (my brother and I were experimenting with a homemade light-box tonight - we decided we needed more light... and a better box :P)

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

 Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things

Merry Christmas Adam! (Hey, Adam came before Eve, right?) Sorry for my lame humour. :P

Have a blessed Christmas!

Reflections of Reality

A thrill runs through you when, amidst the fog of false illusion, you catch a glimpse of the reflection, clearly outlined in colour against a background of gray. For only a moment it remains visible before the image fades, but this unimaginable reality remains etched upon your soul as if you have suddenly been awoken from a lifetime of death. That single beam of light, caught for a moment, is enough to convey purpose, eternity, reality - where they never before existed.

The star, which they had seen in the east, went on before them until it came and stood over the place where the Child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. (Matt 2:9-10)

How could pain or mourning ever shake us again? We have partaken of the water our souls were born thirsting for, and one day we will see the Light our eyes hunger for, for this Light has been born in us. Now that our eyes have once beheld it, we begin to see the Light reflecting on the surface of the lake at sunset. We see it falling dappled on the ground through leafy canopies. It is reflected in the pain-filled eyes of the little boy who speaks of love, of Jesus, while he lies helplessly trapped within a web of IV tubes and monitors. It is in the sublime simplicity of a child's heartfelt prayer. We receive a glimpse of the Light that came, but this is not satisfaction - it is longing, a joyful longing perfected by unassailable hope.

I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life. (John 8:12)

How dreadful to look once and soon forget, but how marvelous to see and remember - to savor and anticipate the culmination of what is promised us forever. And this brings humility, because we realize that we do not see as He sees. we do not see all things, but God has promised to one day reveal all things to us, for He has given His son - the manifestation of his glory.

In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:4-5) 

And yet we have been chosen to see Him who is the radiance of His glory, all because He came to us.  How can we understand this, when we have not yet seen Him in the flesh? How can we fathom it? How can we know it to be true?

We have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God. (1 Cor 2:12)

The unseen has been revealed, because the Spirit of Christ, God himself, lives in us!

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. (Isa 9:6)

This Christmas, in each heart who has been reborn, may every reflection of His glory cause us to long for the day in which we see Him. Jesus, who came to this world as Light wrapped in human flesh, is our salvation and our eternal ambition. No mirror reflects an image unless the light is present. May His Light ever shine within us. Look for Him, and rejoice in Him!

"Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." (1 Cor 13:12)

Christmas Melodies

How deep the Father's love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He would give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

For many, Christmas is all about warm fuzzy feelings. It's about being with family and having "chestnuts roasted o'er an open fire".  We dream of a white Christmas, remembering the times of old.  These things are not inherently bad, but for Christians this should not be the focus of our the holiday.  True, Christ was probably not born on December 25th, but we remember Jesus' birth for a reason- so that we would not become caught up in a "winter wonderland" but in the "wonders of His love".  We should focus, this season and every season, on the gift of God who sent Christ to the world, coming in the likeness of sinful flesh, to save us.  He came as the perfect, spotless lamb of God, to carry our sins upon him and wash them away with his blood.  We are unworthy of the gift of His life! Oh so unworthy!  But he came to us, meek and lowly, to heal, to bind up the broken, to be the Good Shepherd, to convict and rebuke, and ultimately to suffer and to die for my sin.  For your sin.  I feel helpless to adequately convey how astonishing this is!  He was perfect and he was complete.  God is in no way dependent on us.  He could have wiped away the blight of the human race from the earth with a word, but instead he took compassion on us, vile and hateful as we were, and died for us- while we were yet rejecting him!

So I pray that you and yours would have a wonderful Christmas- a Christmas caught up in the wonder of Christ's sacrifice which washed us white as snow.  Isaiah 1:18b - "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool."