Perfectly Imperfect Christmas

^" Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord."

Luke 2:11

 

Ugh!  It's Christmas Eve almost midnight and I still have presents to wrap and a bathroom to clean.  Everyone is sleeping, nothing is stirring...but me. Wah!  Every year I have every intention of having all my gifts wrapped and my house spotless well ahead of time.  And every year I find myself in the same harried place.  I really want to be that well organized and disciplined mom who has it all together...but instead I'm the ADD mom who fly's from one thing to the next.  Always busy but never seeming to get anything done.  I can obsess about the tree, or the table center piece, or something or another.  Meanwhile the rest of the house is in Chaos.

I would like to blame it all on the fact that I currently work in retail and the last three weeks have been filled with more hours then I bargained for as well as late nights.  However I really can't blame it on that since I was in the same predicament when I was a stay at home mom.  It's just me...

In all of it I am learning that I can embrace my creative personality and at the same time learn from those who...well who are sleeping right now because they got everything done already!  It also means I learn to let go...let go of my expectations of how I want Christmas morning and day to be.  It means that I accept a perfectly imperfect Christmas...one where my house is presentable, but not spotless.  It means that I don't worry if someone has to use the upstairs bathroom and it's not as sparkling clean as I want.  It means that I don't worry that I'm putting more presents in gift bags then actually wrapping them. It means that I am thankful for that job that exhausts me so that I can buy presents for my loved ones.  It means that when everyone is here Christmas day I choose to relax and enjoy every minute with my family as those moments when everyone is together is few and so very precious to me.   And most importantly it means that I have to continually choose to turn my mind toward Christ and reflect on the true reason we are celebrating and the greatest most valuable gift we could ever receive... 

One of our perfectly imperfect Christmas mornings

The greatest gift I ever received was the day I finally stopped running from Christ and instead fell into His arms that were always outstretched waiting for me.  Why He would want to have anything to do with this child who wanted nothing to do with Him I cannot fathom, but I am so grateful that He joyfully welcomed me!  Praying today that everyone and anyone who reads this rambling blog might receive that same gift of peace with God and eternal life by believing in the one and only Savior Jesus!

Despite having little extra time I managed to make a wreath this year at my lovely friend Michelle's home! 

For pondering on...

My favorite passage about Christ is found in God's book (The Bible) in Isaiah 53:1-12.  An interesting side note is that this was written long before Christ was born...

Who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
² He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

⁴ Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
⁸ By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
    Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
    for the transgression of my people he was punished.
⁹ He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
    and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
    nor was any deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰ Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
    and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
¹¹ After he has suffered,
    he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
    and he will bear their iniquities.
¹² Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
    and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
    and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
    and made intercession for the transgressors.

Merry Christmas!!!

When We Weep

“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes;

there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.

There shall be no more pain,

for the former things have passed away.”

Revelation 21:4

 


Someday, someday God will wipe away every tear...for today though we weep over the tragic deaths of both the adults and children of Sandy Hook Elementary school. We weep because it is unthinkable to us that anyone would do such a thing. We weep because it could have been our child, sibling, parent, or friend that was killed. We weep for the murderers family and what they too must be going through. We weep and tremble in fear at the thought that it could happen again... We weep as we struggle to come to grips with the reality of our new reality that we live in...one where there is less and less a sense of being safe. The world I knew as a child, the world I grew up in is gone... no longer are the days of kids running free until the street lights come on. We now line in a world where it has almost become the norm to hear of mass shootings...oh but this one is so different so very different because of the precious young children... the same age as my youngest...I can hardly see the keys as I type...I am so broken over this...

When I first herd about the shooting I couldn't help but thinking of the verse in Jeremiah 31:15

“...A voice was heard in Ramah, Lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, Refusing to be comforted for her children, Because they are no more.”

I truly have no idea what those mothers were and are going through...I have never suffered the loss of a child other then a miscarry...that was hard, but miscarrying and losing a child of six or seven years is completely different. Though I never suffered the loss of a child I have suffered the loss of a marraige and that was an incredibly dark and painful time for me! A time where reading God's Word brought little if any comfort...the only thing that really helped was friends holding me and letting me weep. As well as feeling free to cry out in pain to God with all my hurt pain and confusion. There was one more thing that would penetrate the darkness I was in and that was music...God was able minister to me and comfort me through music and He still does...Praying that the families and the Connecticut community will have lots of people who are willing to just hold them and let them cry...

When I or others are deeply hurting it comforts me to know that even Jesus wept (John 11:35). And that in Psalm 58:6 (NLT) it says that God keeps a record of all our tears! "You (God) keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in Your bottle. You have recorded each one in Your book."

The other verses that comfort me are ones where it says God binds up the brokenhearted:

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed. Psalm 34:18

He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds. Psalm 147:3

In my Bible I have highlighted all the verses that either purtain to suffering and/or God's comfort in blue! That way when I am in hurting I can quickly find them.

Here is another one of my favorite ones:

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."
2 Corinthians 3&4

Some final thoughts: We all want to find a way to make sure this never happens again or at the very least to protect our children from ever being a victim themselves! If we could we would lock our children in our homes and never let them out...it's so tempting to think that way isn't it. But the reality is that only gives you a false sense of safety...and besides it would not be a healthy way to live.

As to the why someone could do such a thing I cannot answer, I could only guess. It could be that He has some form of mental illness, at the very least a complete lack of empathy. Or perhaps we just got a glimpse of pure evil...I praise God that He withholds evil to the degree that He does!

12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Ephesians 6:12
13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
Ephesians 6:13

3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5 

"For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 8:38-39

I guess for the Christian what it boils down to is this: Do I really trust God with my life and the life of my loved ones? Am I surrendered to His perfect will and plan? Do I hold my loved ones up to God with open hands saying Lord they are Yours and so am I, do whatever you want with us? Or am I holding on to them to tightly? Do I truly believe that we are completely safe from all harm as long as God so wills and that nothing absolutely nothing can happen to me without first being filtered through His fingers of love? Do I really trust that You God are good even when life is gut wrenching painful?


Praying Dear sisters....