This year I took vacation the week before and after Christmas. Time off was welcomed after putting so many rushed hours in on our last rag, (editors, take note: meet your deadlines and have happy art directors!) I dreamed about the things that I could do and the time I would have to think, create and breathe outside air. I made a list in my journal, hopeful I could accomplish each item, giving no thought to any practicalities.
I knew there were non-negotiables: Christmas shopping, my wife's birthday, and taking the kids tubing (did you know tubes on snow can go over 40 mph?) But some other things like shooting photos of my town's grand old Victorians blanketed in Christmas lights and snow, I wasn't sure I would get to—but I surprised myself.
It was hard to cut the umbilical after pushing hard to meet my deadline, and I actually snuck in some half days on to jump on next month's issue (had to drop my son off close to my office for his new job, so I could just pop in) and yes, I actually accomplished not checking my email for a few days from home...okay, two days!
Although I was used to hours in front of the computer, I tried not to spend my time there. But, I found that I missed the fellowship of the blog and I have looked forward to this post. I pray all those in my small blog community had a Christmas full of wonder. I am thankful for you and the gift of oneness you have been to me, for the encouragement, and for the inspiration of your stories. I think Kirsten echoes my heart on the matter when she said, "We all have stories. And I think we all want our stories to be validated somehow; we want to share them, we want them not to be forgotten. We use them to connect with one another in this virtual blogging space."
So I sit here, on a cloudy day with my list tucked away for now. The snow is falling and I contemplate the mystery of Immanuel, God with us. I also think of the new year and what it may hold.
Under our tree, we have a nativity that was given to us as a gift some years ago. The nativity seems so serene, but even this miraculous arrival had many tough days prior to it. Mary, a pregnant teen, unmarried, giving birth in a stable—perfection born in imperfection. She was a willing vessel to the Lord. When the angel told her that the savior would be created inside of her she responds in with some questions she would like answered, specifically on how a virgin could accomplish such a task, but also in faith: "And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word."
She was willing for perfection to be born in imperfection.
In the first chapter of Luke, Zehariah prophecies before Jesus is born, "Morning light is about to break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace."
May we each allow His light truly break upon us—perfection born in imperfection—this year of 2008, making the shadows of death, despair, depression flee far from us, and may this light guide us, no matter what our circumstances, to the path of peace—His peace.
"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."
13 comments:
So glad your time off has been good; restorative? Tubing sounds like a blast. My husband bought the boys fancy sleds (of course) and they can cook. I enjoy sledding more than should be allowed! :-)
Great thoughts here!
(Our Christmas cards have turned into New Year's cards...I just hope I can get them out before Valentine's Day. With a new computer AND printer to work with, and my tech support away, we'll see!)
Hey! Thanks for the comment. I'll say "no" I'm not ready for Em to go to college, "yes" she'll be stateside (in Texas) and I think the biggest thing I'll have to get used to is prices for services and tipping. ha! (I was shocked two summers ago when I went to put air in a bike tire at a gas station and had to pay $.75! For air!) We've been able to be in the states for two months, but that's it.
As for Calvary Chapel, is it the one on Sunset, I believe? I former grocery store converted into a church? If so, it was across the street from my house. That was a pretty big church which is why I think that might have been it. I don't know the name you mentioned, though. My dad pastored a church in La Puente. Puente Baptist Temple. Lots of great memories there!
Some great thoughts about Christmas. I'm leaving to read and absorb some more. :)
Blessings!
Welcome back, friend. You have been missed, but it sounds like the time away was rich & wonderful & needed.
I resonate with your thoughts about perfection being born into imperfection, about surrendering ourselves to Mystery, to Him who is other & entirely beyond our understanding. How does God do any of it? How do we say (like Mary), may it be to me as you have said.
I think I have been learning that this year. I think God is bigger than I've ever permitted Him to be. And I love it. It is so good.
I'm envious of those 40 mph tubes going down the snow! It sounds so exhilirating.
So glad to hear your Christmas was good & peace-filled, brimming over with wonder.
LM, restorative? Yes, much more than I imagined. At work, I have to be so focused and on task when my copy is late that when the blinders come off of this draft horse, the prairie is much bigger and more beautiful than I remembered.
So glad you are sledding with the boys, and lovin' it. Memories like this root love deep, and laughter has a way of knitting hearts together. You go, LM!
On this tubing note, Mrs. 23 Degrees caught about 3ft. of air on her first run down and decided it was nicer to sip cocoa by the fire and watch us than abuse her backside on frozen tundra.
I had loads of fun with the kiddos and their friends but ended up with a mild case of whiplash 24 hours later, and got to sport a neck brace for a couple days. (In fact the lanes were so fast they shut them down and groomed them.)
Definitely going back.
Stacy, where is Em going to school in TX? Lots of good friends in Dallas, if she ever needs anything let me know.
Not sure where his church was in West Covina, but I used to listen to Raul when I was in college on WMBI out of Chicago. The program was called "Manna for Today". Really a good teacher.
So you are a CA girl, eh! Cali is so amazingly beautiful and diverse, I can see the draw for folks to live there (lived in the Central Valley, Modesto for four years) Folks still there?
Kirsten, "surrendering ourselves to Mystery"...what a beautiful way of putting it.
Not a marked path but a daily, moment by moment revelation? This has to be life in the Spirit, yes?
Keeps us dependent, surrendered, strong in agape. The narrow way.
He is a "Mystery with a history" who has proven himself trustworthy beyond compare.
I wonder what Mary's history was before the Angel told her she would be the mother Jesus?
Thanks for your poetic thoughts and for stopping by, Kirsten. If you have a any layovers in the Midwest on your way to FL, come tubing with us!
Whiplash? Oh no!!
Last year, I was sitting by the fire most of the time. I hate being cold. HATE. IT.
But this year a friend (who moved to Texas) gave me her beautiful, keeps-you-warm-to-below-thirty-degrees down coat. Well, it's not exactly beautiful, but if I pair it with a hat, scarf, gloves, and boots, I'm not cold.
A good thing since we also walk to school as long as it's above zero. We all need the exercise!
Of course, yesterday it was 57. I know. Bizarre!?!
I hope your neck feels better!!
Em will go to Tarrant JC first, then transfer to UNT. She wants to be a speech pathologist. I can see it. :)
My best friend in California was a full-fledged valley girl. So hilarious. You really do get used to a certain pace of life there! I'd love to make a sentimental journey there sometime (my mom has her own sentimental journey every year.)
Just about all of my relatives are in Texas now. There are a couple of scragglers in Bakersfield and Oildale, one in Huntington Beach, but we keep trying to get them to Texas. It would make family reunions a lot easier! ha!
One of my favorite verses there at the end. It is an odd peace He gives us sometimes... not feeling very peaceful at all because we need to grow, change, face things. But there it is. And indeed it is peace.
LM, ah, a down coat! This will work. I counted seven layers when I came back from hunting a couple weekends ago, two being wool. How cool that you walk the boys to school, even in the winter (uphill both ways, like when WE were kids?) :]
Stacy, Tarrant is in the DFW area, four campuses. I liked Dallas, but CA was amazing. Why has most of your family made home there?
Laura, good hearing your voice. Thanks for your insight on this verse. I heard someone say once that Jesus is the final word on peace, on fear, on troubled hearts. What a gift He has given us. Learning how to rest in this peace has been a lifelong process for me that I feel I am always re-learning in different ways.
A little somethin-somethin waiting for you over at my blog ... ;o)
How amusing. I just now noticed your title for this post is based on the classic 6th-grade composition assignment. :)
kirsten, thanks for my first blog-award! (I actually laughed out loud today when I read, "somethin'-somethin')
Laura, glad you got it! :]
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