Amazing Christmas

What an amazing, fun, and meaningful Christmas season we enjoyed this year! Each year I try harder to be more purposeful about what activities we'll be part of. There are so many fun opportunities, but it's so important to choose just a few and enjoy them well. In that way, there is time for stillness--time to "just be"--and enjoy home and family and tradition. One of our favorite traditions around here is the Christmas baking. On one of our baking days, the fullness of what Christmas means hit me with full force. It was spoken to my mother heart, and with tears streaming down my cheeks, I knew I did not want to let go of it. I jotted the following down, so I could remember what my heart felt at that moment:

"There's a still moment just now. I hear Christmas music softly playing and I'm baking Christmas cookies with the big brothers...while our baby rummages around under the table for crumbs. Somehow this moment holds perfection. Snow is coming down and is blanketing everything...and I am pondering the deep love I have for these children...thinking of the fierce love I have for them when I hold them tight...imagining a young woman thinking the same things and feeling the same things in her heart as she cradled her baby...only her baby was God. Think about this for a moment--God put himself in the hands of humans."

God Incarnate was willingly in the imperfect hands of humans--humans like me--who lie and cheat and steal and are innately selfish. Yet He was willing to walk that road....all for the love He had and continues to have for us all.

This reality, thankfully, sunk into my heart early in the Christmas season. A couple weeks later, on our shopping date, Tony and I walked past a local art gallery and saw this amazing picture. Immediately the tears welled-up in my eyes as I took in this beautiful rendition of Jesus as a toddler. It spoke to me so loudly, as a mother of so many little men.

"Walking with God"


Every Christmas that allows for enough stillness to allow this truth to seep in is an amazing Christmas!







Even though being with my treasured family was my very favorite gift of all, I also received a gift that will always remind me of this Christmas. On Christmas morning, Tony handed me a gift. I unwrapped it, and once again tears fell as I stared into that touching picture of toddler Christ. Seriously--can you even fathom the Savior of men as a toddler? He was a trusting toddler who depended on men for all of his earthly needs. He truly knows my road.