Merry Christmas!

I was fortunate to win a photo shoot with Gingersnaps photography. Here are a few favourites I'd like to share in the form of a Christmas greeting.









We pray that you receive the love, hope, peace and joy offered through the gift of Jesus this Christmas.



Merry Christmas!

Ready My Heart

Ready my heart for the birth of Immanuel;
ready my soul for the Prince of Peace.
Heap the straw of my life for His body to lie on;
light the candle of hope,
let the child come in.












Mine is the home that is poor and is barren;
mine is the stable of cold and stone.
Break the light to each corner of doubt and of darkness;
now the Word is made flesh for the birth of me.




Alleluia!

Advent Peace

The advent candle that was lit on Sunday morning was the candle of peace. I didn't remember that on my own. It was woven through the theme of the family service. The virtue was peace and the definition we recited with our children was, "proving you care more about someone than winning an argument." In our family discussion about peace we discover how unpeaceful we feel because things haven't gone the way we hoped and how often our response in those situations is to set things right, our right. We are more concerned with ourselves than in seeing what is going on in the other person.

The Christmas story demonstrates this kind of giving up. This kind of seeing things through in love right to the cross.

We hear "that on the first Christmas God, through the angels, sent the message of peace to the shepherds. That message has been passed on through the ages until one day the message of peace was passed on to you."

The simple message overwhelmed, like stepping out into the cold on a minus 30 winter day. It was in that moment that time froze but my eyes thawed and puddled. I was overcome with immense gratitude.

Thank you God!

Thank you for sending the Message.

Thank you for my Mom and Dad and for their faithfulness to God to pass on this message of peace.

Thank you for how the message changes moments, changes lives.

The children sang the message, "For unto us a child is born. Unto us, a Son is given. And His name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."

I think it's their naive presentation of something so amazing that makes the simple, sophisticated (Da Vinci). In their adorable, exuberant, beautiful and bashful way, they represent all of us speaking of things we don't yet understand, of living in ways we know and believe to be right but having no capacity on our own to get it right. They represent us, our journey and our need for a Saviour.

They remind me that this message of peace isn't meant to be hidden or contained. It is to shine brightly and be shared generously.

Missing The Point

I wouldn't call myself a perfectionist. I'm sure my family would argue that I can be a nit pick, or to put a positive spin on it and because I have a nice family, they might say I have high standards for living.

As we've been working to find a way "to do" Christmas over the years I have hemmed and hawed and out right argued about how this season should look. I have straddled both sides of the fence from embracing commercialism to shunning it. My poor family walks through the pendulum swings with me as I struggle to find the balance.

I think one of my greatest fears as a parent is that I won't have taught my kids well enough or given them enough information and enough proof that Jesus is everything. That Jesus is peace and is our complete purpose. I struggle with how they can properly grow when their mother can't seem to get it right! Maybe that's the part of Advent I'm slowly learning. Maybe that's what the gospel teaches us through the example of Jesus. In my search to get it, I find myself looking for a new right way of doing things, a ritual if you will, of how we can make advent meaningful in our house. However, to-do lists or rules can become an end to themselves. They are measurable and can become something to attain, again missing the point. The gospels teach us it's not about me being enough. It's that God is enough.

Scripture is clear on what God requires of us, to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God, Micah 6:8. How that looks in each of our situations is not always clear. In this season our family is working on embracing the generous abundance of Gods love. How can we, with joy, give up to give away. How can we concretely speak about and be about this absurd selfless love daily? If our celebrations become more about us than others we've missed the point of Christmas, the point of the entire gospel. What struck me with force a couple of days ago was the fact that the grace of God enters every situation and begs us to accepts it. God is not limited by our celebrations if our desire is to see Him made famous.

I am grateful that getting it right isn't the point but that following obediently during every season is.