Just kidding about the Deep Thoughts. I don't actually have many of those to spare. Just liked the idea that someday I might have one.
This photo is from our annual trip to a local church's Living Nativity. It's one of the freebie outings we like to do every Christmas together. Every year, I have lovely thoughts of having a deeply spiritual Advent season and focusing solely on the mind-blowing idea that Jesus left His position of omnipotence to come to Earth as an infant born to poor parents, in order to ultimately die a brutal death on a cross to pay for our sins. But too often (as in, every year) I end up racing through the Christmas season in a haze of shopping and sales and baking and decorating and Holidazzle and wrapping and letters and pictures and by the time Christmas rolls around, I can barely draw breath anymore.
So here we are, just a few days from Christmas, and I still have lots of wrapping and baking to do, and my thoughts have been utterly frazzled for the last few weeks. And my good intentions are once again paving a certain road to a place quite apart from Christmas. But the thing that I just LOVE so much about God's grace is that, whenever we turn back to Him, no matter how long it's been or how much we should have turned back earlier, He doesn't greet us with condemnation or recriminations or guilt, He just lovingly wraps His arms around us and welcomes us back. So I can intentionally set my mind on Him today, and enjoy His presence, and thank Him for the amazing gift that He sent, humbly wrapped in manger hay, but more glorious than anything we could ever ask for or imagine.
Have a wonderful, blessed Christmas and may God richly bless you in 2014.
This photo is from our annual trip to a local church's Living Nativity. It's one of the freebie outings we like to do every Christmas together. Every year, I have lovely thoughts of having a deeply spiritual Advent season and focusing solely on the mind-blowing idea that Jesus left His position of omnipotence to come to Earth as an infant born to poor parents, in order to ultimately die a brutal death on a cross to pay for our sins. But too often (as in, every year) I end up racing through the Christmas season in a haze of shopping and sales and baking and decorating and Holidazzle and wrapping and letters and pictures and by the time Christmas rolls around, I can barely draw breath anymore.
So here we are, just a few days from Christmas, and I still have lots of wrapping and baking to do, and my thoughts have been utterly frazzled for the last few weeks. And my good intentions are once again paving a certain road to a place quite apart from Christmas. But the thing that I just LOVE so much about God's grace is that, whenever we turn back to Him, no matter how long it's been or how much we should have turned back earlier, He doesn't greet us with condemnation or recriminations or guilt, He just lovingly wraps His arms around us and welcomes us back. So I can intentionally set my mind on Him today, and enjoy His presence, and thank Him for the amazing gift that He sent, humbly wrapped in manger hay, but more glorious than anything we could ever ask for or imagine.
Have a wonderful, blessed Christmas and may God richly bless you in 2014.