December 2 2014

December 2 2014 Greetings My Friend, It feels so good. I take a deep breath and exhale slowly. It no longer feels like my ribs are breaking and the crud is finally gone. I begin my day in the usual way and I feel those wonderful routines tugging on my heart strings and I have a song in my heart. I did it I went through another nasty bout with bronchitis and now I move along life’s path. Next I glance at the calendar and I find it is December. The Advent season is here, in a few weeks we will celebrate our Lord Jesus’ birth. There is such hopeful anticipation in waiting for Jesus to enter our world. In general a change seems to take place in everyday life. There is hope in the air. I don’t follow the Advent season proper. I do tend to stop and reflect on all the love that is given to this world in a tiny baby, the hope. For me though I don’t end there as I reflect in awe and wonder of Jesus leaving heaven coming into our world I for some reason tend to reflect on His whole life and His purpose for coming. As I do this reflection I absorb more of the love God the Father has for us. God created us to be in a relationship with Him. He gave us choice to choose Him which is awesome so Adam’s sin in the garden doesn’t seem so strange to me anymore. God gives us the same choice He gave Adam and we have the right to choose God and His ways or go our way. For the longest time I felt God’s ways were way too hard and no one could ever live up to God’s standards. I went off into life doing it by the seat of my pants and I messed my life up fairly badly. When I asked Jesus to be my Savior I found myself “hearing” the Holy Spirit’s guiding words, and felt His guiding touch on my life. At that point I started to see that we/I will never fully be perfect on our own. The Holy Spirit will keep working and refining us bit by bit and we change and I finally get it. As I learn I soon see God’s patience and deep love for me. I truly do matter to someone. God tells me all the time I am not my mother’s mistake, my sibling’s bratty older sister and the list goes on and on. I matter and the more I feel like I matter I grow into my own skin and like “me” just the way I am and the way God is creating me to be. The circle of Christmas, Jesus’ life, His death and His resurrection seems to be the underlying theme in my life anymore. It seems to be my first thought as I wake up each morning and the thought I come back to throughout the day and the last thought I have as I go to sleep at night. I never thought that I could ever fully train my heart to this depth of submission. I am learning to do this almost automatically anymore. Sometimes I fall off track only to find my thoughts once more going back to the Bible, to prayer and seeing how God has always been there, always will be. Giving baby Jesus gifts was a miracle so Joseph and Mary could flee the country when Herod wanted to destroy this gift to all people. Gift giving takes on a new meaning these days and I find that “Black Friday” sales are meaningless and my heart turns to “Black Friday” after Jesus died and the hope of His resurrection. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet