I have been in a full "Must get ready for Christmas, but totally not feeling it" type of mood since before Thanksgiving. When Thanksgiving weekend was over, it honestly had just felt like we had had some great food and great family time, but not like it had been Thanksgiving. I have been SO BUSY to STOP and really enjoy the holidays. To STOP and really think about why I'm scrounging around to buy all these gifts and make all these cookies. Why am I doing all of this?
This morning, I was making bread, waiting for cookies to come out of the oven, filling out Christmas cards, emailing and helping with Randol's schoolwork-All at the same time, of course. I had gotten this grand idea to email folks I knew on Facebook and get their addresses so I could send them a Christmas card. I was overwhelmed by how many people wrote back and how fast they were, in their response. These were mostly people I know, but don't really talk to very often. Facebook is a great way to quietly keep up with folks. It's kind of sad in a way. I can know so much about people I haven't seen-or really talked to in years...all through Facebook.
Ok, enough soapdish talk, let me get back to where I was. So, I was getting lots of emails from folks I hadn't heard from (and who hadn't heard from me) and a few of those folks mentioned reading my blog recently and something that I'd said, had meant something to them. Wow. That's all I could say. It made me remember the following post and how I'd never finished it and how I need to make my writing more important. Here were people God had reached, through me and I never even knew it. How many more could He have touched, but I didn't take the time to write?
So I went back to this post to do a final read through with the goal to finally post the thing. By the time I got to the end, I almost laughed at what I read. Here I was, the day after I'd bought some presents for people I really didn't need more presents for, all because I was in "Christmas 
Panic" mode of fearing I wouldn't get all my shopping done. Here I was, all wrapped up in the baking and shopping and Christmas cards and all the DOING that I had forgotten the WHY of what I was doing. God used my own words to give me a slap in the face that forced me to wake up!
Panic" mode of fearing I wouldn't get all my shopping done. Here I was, all wrapped up in the baking and shopping and Christmas cards and all the DOING that I had forgotten the WHY of what I was doing. God used my own words to give me a slap in the face that forced me to wake up! Talk about eating your own words, as the saying goes! So here you go, five weeks later, I get this to you. I really pray you'll be blessed and if you're like me worrying about finishing that very long to-do list, you'll remember the Reason for the Season.
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My parents recently returned from a trip of a lifetime on a Holy Land cruise in the Mediterranean. We keep kidding my mom who took 1700 pictures of their trip! Wesley kept telling her, "I don't need to go to the pyramids now. Anytime I want to go to Egypt, I'll just come look at your pictures!" (Anyone want to ask where my love of photography comes from :) Now while I was not there to actually experience everything first hand, I couldn't help but being moved by what I saw and the stories I heard. Out of all the amazing places they went, I was most fascinated by the pictures of the Sea of Galilee and the roads where Paul walked in Ephesus. A lot of what they saw is debatable. For example, how do they know that was the real rock Jesus stood on when He did the miracle of the loaves and the fishes? Is that really the marble slab they laid Jesus body on when they took Him off of the cross? How do they know these things? Did some guy store it in his backyard for hundreds of years until 300 A.D. when some man proclaimed what the rock was?
But then there is much that is not debatable. There is only one Sea of Galilee and we know from God's Word that that is where Peter walked on water and that Jesus calmed a terrible storm. 
There is only one Jordan River and we know that Jesus was probably baptized in its waters. There is only one Garden of Gethsemane and we know that Jesus went there to pray, even on His last night before His death. These things, are not debatable. To look at the scenery that Jesus once looked at is fascinating to me. I'm sure things have changed, but when you look out into that wide open water with the mountains in the distance, to know He once was there; to see bits and pieces of the town He grew up in, played in and walked along telling others about His Father in Heaven, it really puts my life in perspective.
There is only one Jordan River and we know that Jesus was probably baptized in its waters. There is only one Garden of Gethsemane and we know that Jesus went there to pray, even on His last night before His death. These things, are not debatable. To look at the scenery that Jesus once looked at is fascinating to me. I'm sure things have changed, but when you look out into that wide open water with the mountains in the distance, to know He once was there; to see bits and pieces of the town He grew up in, played in and walked along telling others about His Father in Heaven, it really puts my life in perspective. God in the flesh, on this earth, walking, eating and sleeping just like we do now. He was real and He really lived and died for you and me. Recently while studying 1 Thessalonians, I came across a verse that I cannot get out of my head. In 5:10, it says, "He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him."
The whole reason He died is so that He could be with us! Right now! We don't have to wait until we are in heaven to be with Him. How many times do I take that for granted? One of my pet peeves 
is when I talk to my children and they don't listen. I cannot stand it! So often the Holy Spirit is quick to remind me-I do the same thing to my Heavenly Father. He will tell me to do something and I will pretend I didn't hear or I'll be too busy to stop and listen to His voice.
is when I talk to my children and they don't listen. I cannot stand it! So often the Holy Spirit is quick to remind me-I do the same thing to my Heavenly Father. He will tell me to do something and I will pretend I didn't hear or I'll be too busy to stop and listen to His voice. But that is why Christ suffered on a cross...so that I could be forgiven and without sin and so that His Spirit (the Holy Spirit) can reside in my very being. How humbling is that thought? As we are in the midst of this Christmas season, I encourage you to reflect on that. Don't forget that there really was a baby who was 
sent to the be the Savior of the world. There really was a manger and a stable and a star shining bright in the sky.
sent to the be the Savior of the world. There really was a manger and a stable and a star shining bright in the sky. He really lived.
Last Christmas it really struck me that without that tiny baby lying in a manger...there never would have been a cross. Calvary never would have happened and His Spirit would not be here with us today. We would still be under the Law that Christ's blood freed us from. Christmas is about so much more than lights and presents, it's about grace, sweet grace and the tiny baby that started it all.
"Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God...And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."
Colossians 3:2,17
Picture #1: The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. You can see the tiny prayers written and shoved in every crease of the wall. This is the last wall standing of the second temple, built after King Solomon's temple was destroyed.
#2: The Jordan River
#3: Sea of Galilee
#4: A view of the Sea of Galilee
#5 An amphitheatre where Paul preached in Ephesus.
#6: Mosaic walkway the dates back to Paul's day in Ephesus.
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