A Holy Night

Driving home from the airport this morning at 6:00 am amidst the lack of sun and traffic, of kids and chatter, gave me time to listen to the words of a lovely Christmas song streaming from the radio.

O holy night, the stars are brightly shining. It is the night of our dear Savior's birth....

In the past month, I've been listening to Christmas songs as much as i listen to my children chatter - so that's alot! And there are alot of songs out there that have nothing to do with Jesus' birth.

They're not bad. In fact, many of them stir up heart-warming memories that i can't even begin to put into words.

But some of them also stir up the frenzy that the holidays can whip into without warning.

And so, when i reached this 23rd Day of December with only 2 days left 'til Christmas -- really, only 1 day to complete my to-do list -- i realized clearly the frenzied edge my soul was teetering on.

But as the words to that sweet salutation to Jesus' birth streamed out of my car speakers, it began to dawn in my heart of hearts the wonderfulness of the season.

Gratitude and appreciation for Jesus arriving on earth as He did that holy night...

The celebration of the miraculous birth of a sweet baby...

They're all miraculous events and all sweet bundles, but JUST the WONDERFULNESS of HIS birth, of His choosing me/us/you/my family/my community.....

Then i came across this verse in today's reading from our ladies blog at church:

Nahum 1:15
Look! Striding across the mountains --
a messenger bringing the latest good news: peace!
A holiday, Judah! Celebrate!
Worship and recommit to God!
No more worries about this enemy.
This one is history. Close the books.

I found this prophet's message to those people so many years ago was, in fact, speaking to me this Christmas.

At the first Christmas, the sky filled with messengers proclaiming "Peace!"
It's a holiday, [Heather], time to Celebrate!
Throw off the cookie-crusted oven mitts! Toss the glittering wrapping paper and tape!

Lift those bared hands in worship! Wrap your life and heart and soul beautifully in recommitment to God and His way of loving and living and serving and trusting! The stress and selfishness and soul-craziness are history. Close the books.

And may i celebrate the birth of Jesus with as much -- with more -- tenderness and gratefulness and appreciation and love and selflessness as i do that of my children, realizing the impact of a baby born so long ago on a world He loved more than a pristine - even, clean - place to be born, a world He loved more than His life, a world He loves and calls me to love.

It was and will be a Holy Night.

Happy Birthday, Jesus. I love you.

Thankful

So much to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving Day ...

He [Jesus] used His servant body to carry our sins to the Cross so we could be rid of sin,
free to live the right way.

His wounds became your healing.

You were lost sheep with no idea who you were or where you were going.
Now you're named and kept for good by the Shepherd of your souls.
1 Peter 2:24,25

Thank You, Jesus!

He Knows What He's Doing

Lately, the book of the Bible that has been on my daily list to read with ladies from church (http://lincolncitychurchwomen.blogspot.com) has been Jeremiah.

Not an overly cheery book, seeing as the pages are filled with dire warnings or with ghastly word pictures of the various ways the rebellious people will die if they don't change --- all set against the backdrop of EXILE.

Exile doesn't sound like a nice place to be; it's no vacation, not a foreign exchange student plan, nor a diplomatic visit.

Yet, while reading this book, i found myself marveling in the awesomeness of the fact that it is in this very place that God is.


I'm not in exile.

And I don't know anyone personally who is.

But I also know that neither am i in a place that is completely the plan God has for me or my family.

We're not home. We're sorta in limbo (that's the place where our family hovers between Two Cities: Lincoln and Omaha).

Then i came across a very well-known verse in Jeremiah, one that is quoted alot and claimed by many.

In the midst of the peoples' exile, God says:

I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out -- plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for (29:11 of course!)

Sometimes i catch myself thinking and feeling and even praying in a way that sounds like i don't think God knows what He's doing! Surely, i know what to do to make this exile, this situation change, right?!

Hardly. I'm SO grateful that GOD knows what HE'S doing.

And that i can call on Him, pray to Him, search for Him .. and He'll be there.

When you call on Me, when you come and pray to Me, I'll listen. When you come looking for Me, you'll find Me.

Yes, when you get serious about finding Me and want it more than anything else, I'll make sure you won't be disappointed. God's decree. (Jeremiah 29:12-14)


That's the challenge set before me:
- Get serious about finding God (not a buyer for our house, not a new house to move into)
- Want God more than anything else (not moving to Lincoln)

Because when i go looking for God, HE is what i'll find. I'm not going looking for God, hoping to find Him sitting in our new house, having coffee with a buyer for our current house.

He said He will listen. He will be there.

And where He is, there is freedom, peace, love, joy.

Grateful for Seasons

Seasons.

I love them.

And for all the reasons i sometimes think it would be cool to live in some other state than Nebraska, it's times like today, like this month and the ones on its heel that I am grateful to live here.

And so grateful to God for making seasons.

Sometimes it seems that the hot, sticky, suffocating temperatures of summer make a glaring reflection on the human lives and emotions that are sweltering under its full sun. Emotions burst the mercury on the thermostat of tolerance when presented with a particularly trying situation (misunderstandings, impatience, nit-picking, kids irritating each other) ... Tempers come up short when facing a challenging circumstance (mower breaks in 100+ temps, car's air conditioner unit breaks down in jammed evening traffic).

Summer just seems to have some of the qualifications for a pressure cooker. Hot, steamy and times of barometric pressure (at least for some. lying on a beach or poolside with no responsibilities is another wonderful story).

But Fall.

Ah, fall. Cool air that has been blown through the puffy clouds rather than a whirring air conditioner unit gently kiss your cheeks, blow your hair into a new carefree style.

Beautiful leaves wave from their precarious places in the sap-filled trees, delighting the eyes and stimulating the brain with their new splash of color.

The cool outside makes the inside feel all that much cozier.

Kids play comfortably together, sharing warmth and toys in the frosty mornings.

Lunchtime is devoured by appetites that have chased crunchy leaves for hours.

The dinner table steams with hearty dishes and heart-filled companionship of family safely home for the night.

Seasons seem to make me appreciate either what i have been blessed with (see previous) or with what i don't have at the moment (hot temps sound so good while shoveling mounds of snow).

That's why i found my heart brimming with gratefulness to God for creating and giving to us these different seasons.

Appreciation of what is in my life now.

Refreshing from what was in my life before now.

Anticipation for what is to come in my life after now.


Seasons in life.

May i learn something from each one.
And find something to enjoy in each one.

Thank You, God, for Your Season(ing)s!

God's Free Target Bags

If the Target chain of stores had existed in the times of the Israelites' trek to the Promised Land, perhaps they could have claimed what i did after my trek up and down the aisles (and a trek it does seem, sometimes.).

I had returned from my weekly trip to SuperTarget, only to find i had forgotten to scribble "trash bags" on my list.

That, or i was feeding a stubborn streak of seeing how many Target bags i could salvage to use for "free" trash bags. (however, pull up the calculator on your phone, divide the total bill by the number of bags, and they're really not all that free).

But that night i was able to put ALL 10 BAGS into my barren trash bag container (an empty milk jug with the top cut off)! And the verse popped into my head about how God kept the Israelites' shoes and clothes from wearing out as they tromped around the wilderness for 40 years.

"... You sustained them ... they lacked nothing; their clothes did not wear out... their Target shopping bags did not tear...."

Sounds silly, perhaps.

But God knew what i needed.

And if He cares enough to make sure the birds have food every day and that the flowers are lookin' good, then i'm pretty sure He cares about my trash bag situation. And kitchen trash bags, at that. Small.

Now i have TWO trash bag containers, bursting at the seams, plus more Target bags tucked away to refill my current stock.

Wow, when there's a need, God really supplies over and above. Even "free" Target bags.

Speaking Hawaiian

A great work of fiction centered around Hawaii recently flew before my eyes at every available naptime of my children, leaving several impressions with me.

One: My husband and I should really vacation in Hawaii sometime. Soon. Without the kids.

Two: Love and forgiveness are absolutely essential in a marriage. Even more so than squeezing the toothpaste from the correct end and leaving the toilet seat down.

Three: I need to speak more Hawaiian. Fortunately for me, since i don't speak ANY, even speaking ONE word will accomplish that goal.

Aloha.

That's my new word.

In the old, original language, Aloha meant "God in us." That, along with its other meanings, including those intimating love, sweeps along to the particular meaning that caught my attention.

"I recognize the divine in you." I see God in you.

And, since Aloha is as flexible as the palm trees bending in the tropical breezes, it can be used in greeting or farewell... or just about anytime.

In the morning, when my kids wake up, I'll greet them with an Aloha (I'd greet my husband that way in the morning, but lately he's been up at a time that i don't recognize as part of the day.)

When my children are fussing or throwing a fit ... "Aloha! And let me show you to your room. It's a bit far from the beach, but i'm sure you'll find it accommodating."

On the rare mornings when i AM up to wave Husband off to work... Aloha. When he comes home... Aloha! (sorry, no exclamation point in the AM)


God is so awesome -- today's Bible reading for our City Church Women's blog is Psalm 31 & 32. And sure enough, it tied into my Hawaiian thoughts.

"God's my island hideaway, keeps danger from the shore, throws garlands of hosannas around my neck" (32:7).

So while i might not be on the sandy shores of the islands, i CAN rest in God. He'll provide the leis, and I'll say Aloha! to people and situations -- including myself in the mirror -- knowing that God IS in us.


Aloha!

God Still Knows Where the Apple Is

If God twittered, the Scripture He'd send to my phone would be Matthew 18:5:

"Whoever receives one little child like this in My Name receives Me."

Sitting on my living room floor one morning a coupla months ago (wow, this has taken forever!), in the midst of my two jammied kids (as Tessa likes to say)...



... and surrounded by toys strewn around the room just about as haphazardly as my hair was hanging around my face thanks to Daniel's rough attempts at showing his love for me... a tiredness attempted to creep into my thinking...

"Why am I doing this?"
"WHAT am I doing?"
"Am I accomplishing ANYthing besides making sure everyone's pants are clean and dry? And there's something resembling food on the table?"

Then Matthew 18:5 twittered into my head, and it was really like a salve that began to spread over my heart and into my thinking, bringing peace to my spirit. It reestablished my purpose as a Mom-at-Home!

Yes, I could respond graciously to my baby's cries for attention and my preschooler's chattering attempts at drawing me into role-playing conversation ... WITH a happy heart because it was like I was responding to Jesus!

I could carry out the daily tasks needed for these two little ones because as I did, it was as though I was serving Jesus directly!

I love love love being at home and serving my family.
I actually like to do laundry and make my kids giggle.
And bake sweet things.



But there are days when Mr. Winter shuts us in the house for the whole week.
Or the laundry falls two stinky socks short of fulfilling.
Or the only thing I'd like to bake is myself in the sun. Alone on a beach.

That's why I'm SO thankful for God's Word and for His Holy Spirit teaching me things like that verse in Matthew.

I love receiving Jesus in my house!


And having Jesus in my house also brings an extra set of eyes.

My wonderful Mrs. Pastor posted something one day along the lines of the fact that God is the only One Who is with my children 24-7. I can't be with them every second, but He knows everything about them and cares about every detail.

Including the missing fruit.

The one that Daniel could have found, put in his mouth like everything else, and choked on, I said to God one night as my husband and I were preparing to play Hi-Ho-Cherry-O with Tessa.



He knew about the disappearance of the first apple. And He knew where our plastic one was, too.

With my hand on the gate to let fearful thoughts pour into my mind about what would happen if Daniel had gotten into Tessa's game and eaten the plastic fruit, God told me,

"He didn't eat the fruit."

Sure enough, the fruit was found the very next day. And not in Daniel's diaper.


Thank You, Jesus, for being receivable.
For bridging the gap between me and God so that I can receive Him, too.

Thank You for being in my house,
For these little ones,
And for keeping an eye on the fruit.