Oh Christmas Tree

We've been delighting in friends & sisters, American chocolate & dairy, Grandma & Grandpa, doll babies & motorcycles, Christmas pretties & kitchen scrubbies. We've been breathing in that familiar song in the air, that Christmas spirit that has been transported to us by our beloved guests. Though they couldn't bring us snow or a chilly breeze, we settled for homemade snowflakes & the dull haze of harmattan. Though they couldn't bring us the family Christmas party, their dear faces now decorate our mini tree.

My parents, Dale & Lucille, are ending their 2 weeks with us. We've taken to all the places we normally go, made for them the food we usually eat & filled in every spare moment with book reading, craft making & time spent renewing that precious relationship with Max, Elle & Rory.

The holiday season has been very different for us this year.

The past month has twirled by in a rush of meetings, sermons, a newsletter for Jon, preparation for visitors, canning tomatoes, & fitting in as many school days as possible for Max as prepared ourselves & our home for the Outreach team & a visit from my parents.

We have already received several Christmas cards in the mail. So sweet of you...you know who you are. It is a gesture that is appreciated so much. It will be exciting to hang all the new pictures.
That familiar feeling of Christmas joy. You know it. Brought on by time with extended family, that perfect little gift found for the one you love, getting to sing "I Heard The Bells" that one time a year the chorister dares to try it. The smell of evergreens, the shopping trip with a sweet friend, a red sweater (;)

Finding the Christmas spirit seems tough in the heat, the dirt, in the saying goodbye to our beloved visitors. This year we are making new traditions like this amazing advent calendar my sisters & Mom put together for me. And helping host a Christmas dinner for the pastors & their families. And making cookies for the neighbors.

And, above all, living in the knowledge that this dusty sweaty land with so many physically & emotionally needy people, is very much like the town of Bethlehem that God, Adonai El Elyon, chose as the place to bring His Son into this dirty, weary world.

Familiar traditions & holiday bustle are far from us here. My spirit is being challenged to live aware that the plan of redemption for my sin stained soul to be changed for the glory of Adonai El Elyon, began at the birth of my Saviour. What a worthy reason to celebrate Christmas!