A Pictorial Christmas 2012

Longtime friend...Kenny

 

Our new Family!!!

Yeah!!!  Hunter Boots

My thankyou gift for helping with the wedding:)

A whip cream `gift from the 2 on the right:)

 

Zoe:)

 

Mikaela...a young lady

 

Merry Christmas

"Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

Let earth receive Her King

Let every heart prepare Him room

And heav'n and nature sing."

Welcome to Our World

We all long for that "perfect" Christmas

To sing from our toes "it's the most wonderful time of the year".

We cringe to hear of brief lives cut short

And how the lonely hours of many are exaggerated

It seemed this year would be my escape from the ugliness of life

Even as the circumstances were unfolding I so desperately wanted to press

life's delete button

To run away from the hurt

To turn the lights up brighter on the tree

To somehow erase what had just occurred.

This morning, during our Christmas Communion Service our

pastor spoke of our coming Lord's birth

How He came to "wrap around our injured flesh."

Gripping words for my injured, wounded soul.

A way to describe all that I have been wading through.

 Communion brought fresh, deep gratitude

My own private, quiet moment to remember and give humble thanks for His sacrifice

His willingness to come to me
For me!

His measureless gift of wrapping His very life around,
not just my injured flesh
but my own flawed, broken, sin-sick soul.
There is no greater gift

In a symbolic way we wait for His coming just days from now

But very much drawing upon the beautiful reality of 

Immanuel God-with-us 

in the midst of the messiness of living

Still we await We His future coming

when our injured, wounded selves will be made whole.

Hallelujah!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCJVztqFJNU 

Welcome to Our World

Tears are falling, hearts are breaking

How we need to hear from God

You've been promised, we've been waiting

Welcome Holy Child

Welcome Holy Child

Hope that you don't mind our manger

How I wish we would have known

But long-awaited Holy Stranger

Make Yourself at home

Please make yourself at home

Bring Your peace into our violence

Bid our hungry souls be filled

Word now breaking Heaven's silence

Welcome to our World

Welcome to our World

Fragile finger sent to heal us

Tender brow prepared for thorn

Tiny heart whose blood will save us

Unto us is born

Unto us is born

So wrap our injured flesh around You

Breathe our air and walk our sod

Rob our sin and make us holy

Perfect Son of God

Perfect Son of God

Welcome to our World

Amy Grant

The Gift of Tender Mercy

This day, oh this hard day...

I have struggled to keep perspective and been sadly losing that fight.

I have sought to keep God in focus but my vision so blurred.

I have endeavored not to worry and no sooner have I reorganized my thoughts than the churning within reappears.

And that "keeping space" I so purposefully plan into my days, has been far too small these past 24 hours.

But I love how God's Word can cover me like a blanket...how it appears fresh and timely in the midst of all I am wading through.

It's the words of Zacharias' Prophecy introducing John in Luke 1:76-78a which capture my thoughts--

"And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;

For you will go on before the Lord to prepare His ways;

To give His people the knowledge of salvation

By the forgiveness of their sins,

Because of the tender mercy of our God..."

Can there be a more calming truth for my turmoil?  My sin seems ever before me and how discouraging it is to wage this battle against self.  Yet Luke reminds me of the unfolding purpose of Christ's coming...the very event we are anticipating this Advent season.  

Salvation, forgiveness and the "tender mercy of my God" ...how lavish a gift.

Rest oh weary soul.

The Keeping Space

I'm a person who seeks NOT to be busy.  

In fact I have often said that I choose to rebel against the frantic pace 

our society deems necessary or important or perhaps, "just the way it is".

There are those who recognize the need to have margin in their life.  

I'm thinking of it as "the keeping space".  

It's that empty space I need to have in my life so that I can hear the Spirit's voice. 

I grab on to how Henri Nouwen describes this in 

an excerpt in my Advent Devotional from

"A Spirituality for Living".

He calls it a discipline, but not the way we often think of discipline.

"...in the spiritual life, the word discipline means,

'the effort to create some space in which God can act.'"

Oh that's so beautiful.

So inviting and calming.

I so need this space.

Henri goes on to explain...

"Discipline means to prevent everything in our lives

from being filled up.

Discipline means that somewhere we're not occupied,

and certainly not preoccupied.

Discipline means to create space in which

something can happen that we hadn't planned or counted on.

Discipline helps us to follow the voice of the Spirit,

who wants to lead us to new places, new people,

and new forms of service."

This space is something I am extra conscious of in this Christmas season.

So much vies for my attention, my time, my thoughts.

And if I"m not careful,

if I'm not daily "keeping space" to allow God to act,

then I lose perspective, serenity and an open heart.

So whether it is a shopping list in hand

or a meal I'm preparing

or an "intrusion" into my day

I'm in want of that "keeping space"

and a God-who-is-with-me

to speak and guide and invite me into the dance.

 

"Christ the Light of the World"

Thomas Kinkade

"'If you are past 35, you surely grieve something.

If nothing else, you simply grieve for the passing of time...

for the helplessness of knowing that tragedy can occur instantly

and without warning',

writes southern novelist Vicki Covington.

Pastor and teacher Dr. Gary Klingsporn wrote,

'Only a Christ who comes into 

and shares our tears....

only that Christ can really speak meaningfully to us today.

Christ is born into whatever it is that we feel.

He comes not as a predictable hero,

but as a vulnerable child.

From the Messiah in a manger

to the King on a cross,

this is the mystery of the incarnation--

that into such a world of need,

into such a world as ours,

God whispered His profound love.

And He whispers it yet today.' 

O God who entered time and eternity

as a crying infant...

 be present in my tears.

I lay before You all that burdens my heart

even as I listen for the singing of angels."

I must strain to hear the singing of angels today.

The paralyzing screams of children threaten to drown out 

the joyous message the angels proclaim.

But I choose to remember

amidst the nightmarish pain of this world

that Christ came into

this world.

Emmanuel...

God-with-us...

"Oh God-who-walks-alongside-us...

comfort deeply

be the Light in the weighted darkness of this day

in the strong and sure name of Jesus I pray

Amen.

 

Celebrating 25 Years of Sobriety

"For of His fullness we have all received

And grace upon grace."

--John 1:16

Grace upon grace has been overwhelming us as we celebrated and reflected

25 years of my husband's sobriety.

An Open House at our church yesterday was filled with many moments of

rejoicing with friends old and new.

 

There are countless times where we don't understand God's working in our lives

leaving us confused and doubting His wisdom.

I am sure many people harbored such thoughts throughout 

Brian's drinking "career"...

"Will God ever step in and rescue this slowly dying man?"

And yet on that one stand-alone day...

December 11, 1987

the time was right for a rescue

and life change began

Today, 25 years later we marvel and celebrate and give thanks

to the God who heaps grace upon grace

SO THAT...

another life...

Brian's,

could be a redemptive story living out this grace

in a pain filled, dying world.

 We give thanks to God for our

abundant, grace-filled lives.

Advent Dawns

 It is here...

Advent

And I find myself catching my breath in my spirit.  

I have come to know such a wealth of God in this season of preparation.

It's a call to my soul to be quiet...

reflective...

open to Him who waits for me in the rush of the days.

Expectancy is what I feel

Expectancy to meet Him...

Emmanuel

To see His face where I don't always bother to look

To hear His whisper amidst all the noise of life

To experience His "God-With-Me-Presence"

Pamela Hawkins, in her Advent Devotional, "Behold" challenges me with these words:

"It is not uncommon for us to approach the season of Advent

with lists of our own expectations,

as though the season begins and ends with us."

Ouch.

As much as I have a heartfelt desire to walk intimately with God

this season,

I have to admit that I still have my agenda

Of how the next days should unfold

Of accomplishing all that is on my list of external prepartion

Of how I want God to interact with me as the hours slip by

But what if He has another plan

He's been known to work like that...

I know

Am I willing to lay myself bare...

body, soul and spirit

to Emmanuel

Inviting Him to have His way

whatever way that may be?

My "yes" is slow to slide off my tongue

But it is there

for Him to hear...

Come Lord Jesus

"Come, thou long-expected Jesus,

born to set thy people free;

from our fears and sins release us,

let us find our rest in thee."

--Charles Wesley