Remembering Christmas...
Alright, I'm just going to say it, I'm sad Christmas is over! I know I shouldn't be, perhaps, but I just love the holiday - and just like that, it's gone!
But what are my favorite things about Christmas? The cookie exchanges? The decorating? The parties? The Christmas outfits? The presents? And well, yes, I love presents. Not just watching my kids open and enjoy there's or even my family/friends, but I like getting them for me. I'm not gonna lie. And minus the mattress my parents bought us a few years back that remains one of Daryl and I's all time favorite gifts, I think this year I may have gotten the best gifts in total ever.
A whole knife block of Pampered Chef knives which Daryl and I EQUALLY love, and my personal favorite, the shirt he picked for me from Anthropolgie that wasn't even on my wish list! My sister-in-law also picked out some awesome jewelry for me and I got some sweet new kitchen gear (aprons, dish towels, etc) I have been craving from Anthropologie from other family members.
Ultimately, those things aren't even my favorite though. Cause sooner or later, my shirt will ruin (probably sooner with two little kids). Sooner or later, my knives will dull. Sooner or later, my jewelry will not be in style. And secretly, those gifts don't do it for me as much as many of the other things about the season.
I am sure that three days in a row I told Daryl in all sincerity, "You know what my favorite thing about Christmas is?" He never made fun of the fact that I had multiple favorites, he never even mentioned it, and I have logged that in my reasons I love him :) But after some more thought, I have decided this is my mostest favorite...
Jesus Christ, and the grace God has provided me in Him. Simple. Basic. And I'm not trying to be overly spiritual. Just for real.
The past cluster of years I really feel like, though I have had many ups and downs, failures and successes, God has opened my eyes more and more to the Gospel - to who I am without Him (rebel sinner) and what I deserve (nothing) and who He is (Holy) and what He has given me totally by His good pleasure (everything good).
While going about our days over the holidays we listened to a lot of Christmas music. One song I heard was (Everybody's Waiting) "For the Man With The Bag" and while the version we have is cute and catchy, the word's here startled me:
SERIOUSLY?! This is the ANTITHESIS of Christmas! And the antithesis held out to us is the Gospel - GREAT NEWS!!!! WE are offered the answers to more than we could ask or pray INSPITE of the fact that we don't do anything good on our own - nothing.
I love Isaiah 53. Charles Spurgeon calls it "the Bible in miniature, the Gospel in essence." Here are some of the verses from it that display the truth about Jesus and us (although you should go read the whole thing, just click on over to Biblegateway)...
The Lord has laid on Jesus our iniquity. Verse 10 says it was "the Lord's will to crush Him." The Sovereign and Holy decided 16 "[He] so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
And He did it while we were hell bound rebels fist shaking at His rule - Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Oh, to the praise of His glorious grace! Grace upon grace, that's what I've received. From His lowly entrance in a stable with steeds, to His death on the cross accompanied by thieves. As He reigns at His Father's right hand pleading for me, grace upon grace, because of Him, I've received.
Merry Christmas
But what are my favorite things about Christmas? The cookie exchanges? The decorating? The parties? The Christmas outfits? The presents? And well, yes, I love presents. Not just watching my kids open and enjoy there's or even my family/friends, but I like getting them for me. I'm not gonna lie. And minus the mattress my parents bought us a few years back that remains one of Daryl and I's all time favorite gifts, I think this year I may have gotten the best gifts in total ever.
A whole knife block of Pampered Chef knives which Daryl and I EQUALLY love, and my personal favorite, the shirt he picked for me from Anthropolgie that wasn't even on my wish list! My sister-in-law also picked out some awesome jewelry for me and I got some sweet new kitchen gear (aprons, dish towels, etc) I have been craving from Anthropologie from other family members.
Ultimately, those things aren't even my favorite though. Cause sooner or later, my shirt will ruin (probably sooner with two little kids). Sooner or later, my knives will dull. Sooner or later, my jewelry will not be in style. And secretly, those gifts don't do it for me as much as many of the other things about the season.
I am sure that three days in a row I told Daryl in all sincerity, "You know what my favorite thing about Christmas is?" He never made fun of the fact that I had multiple favorites, he never even mentioned it, and I have logged that in my reasons I love him :) But after some more thought, I have decided this is my mostest favorite...
Jesus Christ, and the grace God has provided me in Him. Simple. Basic. And I'm not trying to be overly spiritual. Just for real.
The past cluster of years I really feel like, though I have had many ups and downs, failures and successes, God has opened my eyes more and more to the Gospel - to who I am without Him (rebel sinner) and what I deserve (nothing) and who He is (Holy) and what He has given me totally by His good pleasure (everything good).
While going about our days over the holidays we listened to a lot of Christmas music. One song I heard was (Everybody's Waiting) "For the Man With The Bag" and while the version we have is cute and catchy, the word's here startled me:
"He'll be here" (Santa of course), "with the answers to the prayers
that you made through the year
You'll get yours
If you've done everything you should, extra special good."
SERIOUSLY?! This is the ANTITHESIS of Christmas! And the antithesis held out to us is the Gospel - GREAT NEWS!!!! WE are offered the answers to more than we could ask or pray INSPITE of the fact that we don't do anything good on our own - nothing.
I love Isaiah 53. Charles Spurgeon calls it "the Bible in miniature, the Gospel in essence." Here are some of the verses from it that display the truth about Jesus and us (although you should go read the whole thing, just click on over to Biblegateway)...
4 Surely [Jesus] took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
The Lord has laid on Jesus our iniquity. Verse 10 says it was "the Lord's will to crush Him." The Sovereign and Holy decided 16 "[He] so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
And He did it while we were hell bound rebels fist shaking at His rule - Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Oh, to the praise of His glorious grace! Grace upon grace, that's what I've received. From His lowly entrance in a stable with steeds, to His death on the cross accompanied by thieves. As He reigns at His Father's right hand pleading for me, grace upon grace, because of Him, I've received.
Merry Christmas
oh i do so love christmas too..and hate to see it go. hope you all had a great one. thanks for sharing your wisdom and insight and fun stories and pictures. i love you!
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