Christmastime from my world...(and a Christmas card!)

Wow, it's Christmas time?! :) Growing up, there were few Christmases that we got big presents. Because there is so many of us, presents haven't been a big thing at Christmastime. Mom and Dad didn't put up a tree, and we didn't always have stockings. We kids never believed in Santa Claus, and were humorously cautious around our Santa-believing friends--we didn't want to spoil it for them. :)
When we were young, Dad shared with us the origins of the Christmas holiday. If you Wikipedia them, it may cause you to want to throw December 25th out the window. But though these facts of my childhood may cause people to think we were poor, deprived little children, we've always been very thankful and never felt deprived. My family celebrates Christmas in traditional ways, and the lack of trees and presents have helped us remember what it's really all about. What everything is really all about. ;)
Now I love trees and presents! I got to decorate 2 trees this year (at a nursing home and at church) for the first time, and it's so much fun. Especially when you do it with family and friends. Also, Mom has put out two small ceramic trees that were recently-given heirlooms. And this year Jen's credit card wanted to do some bigger-than-usual presents. :)

One tradition we always look forward to is baking our cookies (I didn't get to take pictures this year, it was crazy). Before we moved to the country, we had a sweet neighbor lady who made the BEST unfrosted sugar cookies and brought them to us every Christmas. When we moved, she gave us the recipe, and we continued her tradition. For 6 years, we've baked several dozen and delivered them door-to-door to our neighbors. It's SO fun to do together! This year was the first year we caroled at delivery, haha.

This year, Christmas songs have been different for me. I've related Christmastime to songs like O The Wonderful Cross, O Glorious Day, Sweetly Broken, & O How He Loves Us. Or lyrics that hit on the nose like O Holy Night:

Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appear’d and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn...

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother,
And in His name all oppression shall cease.

No matter what time of year, it's Christmas when I remember the UNFATHOMABLE love of God demonstrated in this...

That while I laid in sin and error, and a slave to my birth-nature that is an enemy of God...

Christ died for me.

Do you relate to the weary world rejoicing? I do, my friend. Because based on my merits, where I shouldn't have HOPE...I DO I DO I DO.

I pray your Christmas is a wonderfully blessed one as you get together with your friends and family. And if Christmas is a difficult time for you, go to Thoughts n Whatnots--LeAnna reminds us that not everyone gets to wholeheartedly rejoice. But I pray joy and peace for you, of the Christ-kind. The peace that passes understanding and the joy that is your strength.

Remember for Whom we celebrate. :)

On Captivity...and Hope

A few things really blessed me today, my friend...

I sat down to blog, but nothing was coming. I had thoughts about flipping the calendar yet again, and Thanksgiving afterthoughts--but writer's block was keeping them secure, wherever they were. So...I closed out Blogger yet again, letting another day go without posting. ;)

But then I actually flipped my calendar.
My calendar is from The Challenge Farm, a mission/refuge-home in Kenya, Africa. They offer a Christian home, education, food and care to children as an alternative to living on the streets. Each month has pictures of the children, the staff alongside them, and Swahili words/phrases.
It tugs at your heart, let me tell you.
Lord willing, I may join a small team to minister at Challenge in the summer of 2010. I am extremely humbled at even the thought! I will keep you posted on this. ;)

THEN...I logged into Twitter, and learned that December 1st is World Aids Day. So I Googled it. There are HIV/AIDS statistics all over the web today, and all of them are heartbreaking. Here are just a couple of my findings...
--Africa has (estimated) 14 million children orphaned by HIV/AIDS.
--A regional estimate for 2008 said that world-wide there was 33.4 million adults & children living with HIV/AIDS...22.4 million were in sub-saharan Africa.

Pastor's message on Sunday was about hope. He shared that alot times we put pressure on hope, and not Whom we hope in. He used a clip from the movie The Tale of Despereaux, and this quote stuck with me...

"The story said [the princess] was a prisoner. But that wasn't totally true because she had hope, and whenever you have hope, you're never really anybody's prisoner."

There are so many kinds of captivity. The Israelites, Apostles and early Christians knew what it was like to be literally taken captive. The people Jesus had healed tasted the captivity of blindness, lameness, disease, sickness, death etc. People taste captivity of circumstances. Captivity of perspective (seeing things a certain way). Captivity of SIN.

Though time has changed significantly, humankind still suffers these things. They are all a kind of death, which is the wage of sin. In every circumstance, there are very human reasons to despair.

Why don't we despair? Why do we hope?

Because when Christ is in you, and when He is your hope (Col 1:27), you are no one's prisoner. Do you hear that? Do you grasp it? It doesn't mean our circumstances change...the princess was still "captive". But she wasn't a captive. Her life, hope, heart, future, weren't based on her captivity any longer. They were based on something greater than the bars and chains.

Is your life, your hope, your heart, your future...are they based on Christ alone?

Not what He can do for you. Are they in HIM and what He's already done?

I remember my chains...I'm fully aware of all of them.

Yet I insist on remembering something else, and because of it I'm filled with hope:

Because of the great love of my Savior,

I am not captivated.

His compassion never fails, and His mercy is new every morning; great is His faithfulness.

I remind myself that my life, my hope, my heart and my future is based on the Risen Christ, and I will wait and hope in Him.

~Lamenations 3:19-24 (in my own words)

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death."

~Romans 8:1