Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas, from our family to yours!
It’s been another wild and wonderful year for our family, and we are so grateful for God‘s faithfulness through the challenges and celebrations of the past year. He is so good!
It required a little begging and bribing but we managed to get a photo of this party of seven. (Thank you Meshali!) But as you know, there is a lot of REAL life that happens behind the perfectly-taken photo. We guzzle grace and grant forgiveness and give thanks and pray God gets the glory for it all.
Finn (3) is loving preschool. Owen (10) is wrapping up elementary school. Brennan (12) is in middle school. Cal (15) began high school. And Andre (23) started his freshman year in college. It was a privilege to welcome Andre into our family this summer from Danita’s Children in Haiti, a place we love dearly. Our hands are full but so are our hearts ❣️
Merry Christmas 🎄 friends!! May your 2020 be filled with the hope and love of Jesus that we celebrate at Christmas!
I also want to share a short piece with you that I wrote for Fox News on Christmas. I hope you enjoy it!
“Why We Shouldn’t Keep Christ in Christmas”
My son, along with his 3-year-old classmates, lined up at the back of the church, nervously awaiting their procession down the center aisle to take their place on the stage. It was the annual Christmas concert at his Christian preschool, and after weeks of practice, it was finally time to perform “Feliz Navidad” and ”Jingle Bells” for the proud parents.
But first, the head pastor of the church that hosts the preschool took the stage to welcome the families and offer a few thoughts on why we celebrate Christmas. “Welcome! It’s wonderful to be together today to celebrate the birth of. But before the children perform, I’d like to offer a brief word of encouragement, which is this: Parents, please don’t keep Christ in Christmas.”
I’ll admit the preacher didn’t have my complete attention until that moment. I had a full day ahead of me, and my mind was on how I was going to get my older kids to all the places they needed to go and still navigate all the things I needed to do.
While the pastor continued on about the bumper stickers we often see on cars at this time of year that say “Keep Christ in Christmas” I turned to my husband and asked, “Did the pastor really just say “Don’t keep Christ in Christmas?” Before my husband could respond, the pastor answered the question for me. I can’t remember his precise words but his message clarified my confusion.
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And as always, I leave you with the latest Insta inspiration!
Christmas. If you, and you alone, were the only one Jesus needed to rescue, He still would have come. If I were the only one, He still would have come. His love is so fierce & so personal. None of us have wandered too far or messed up too much to change this truth.
And so we pray: “Father, seal this glorious truth in our hearts. Spirit of God, bring it to mind every time we are tempted to believe we are the exception to your unconditional love. For the lonely, for the grieving, for the disappointed, for the hurting- let word of your lavish love bring hope to the hurting heart. May we center our thoughts on the gift of your grace given to us in your precious Son, Jesus.”