A Thought on Christmas Eve

All of us are in a fight for joy. For life. For relationship in community. All of us long to see the Father's face more clearly.

Cancer makes the need and longing for these things more urgent.

A Moment to Enthuse

These are two very special ladies in our lives. Nora, on the left, and her older sister, Addie.

Until you have a grandchild, its pretty difficult to make you understand the relationship that develops. Its beyond pride and joy. Its beyond pleasure and enjoyment. Its way better than chocolate and reading. Way better.

When Nora sees me she smiles so wide you can see all of her pretty teeth (there are 4 of them right now). Addie likes to call me Non (rhymes with phone), and pretty much has the best ideas for what to do when we play. When I was a young mom, I felt I needed to juggle chores with playtime. Not as a grandparent. I get to sit down on their level and be with them for however long they like, and play as long as their mom lets us.

Behold the Lamb of God who comes to take away our sin.

I am listening to Andrew Peterson's Behold the Lamb. And tears are just streaming down my face. What a beautifully, scaldingly holy, RIGHT moment it is. To hear words that open my heart's eyes to the truth that people waited a long long time for Jesus' birth. Centuries of people who longed to be holy. To be right before God. And there was no way, just a promise that one day there was going to be a way.

Have you ever waited for something that you wanted. Needed. Something that was going to be the Best Thing Ever? I have. But not like this kind of waiting. When old Simeon's old eyes saw the baby Savior his heart must have burst with joy. In fact, he claimed that now he could die because what he had waited for all his life had now come.

And then without us waiting at all for Him, we learn that He came. The shepherds heard it from the angels that this dazzling event was going to give us peace henceforth. Peace with God that would never end. God, the creator and Father, sent me a savior. And opened my eyes to the need for such a provision. I love that God just gave me a hint to what the exhausted and troubled creation felt at the incarnation.