Christmas

Today is Christmas. I am sitting here in a warm house, with my grandparents, parents, sisters, and brothers standing around, joking and talking with one another.  My dad is cleaning pans from breakfast, and the boys are playing with battery-operated cars they found in their stockings.  The dog is successfully (for the most part) dodging the little missiles, one eye on the cars and the other shut as she tries to get in her mid-morning nap.  If you sat down and looked around, it would look like a peaceful day in the life of our family.  But if you got up and started talking among the children, you would find out more.  They are joyful in the celebration of Jesus, excited at the remembrance of His birth.  They know that this is more than a fun day off school with new toys to play with and grandparents to visit—it's one of the most important days of the year.  Christ the savior was born today—is there anything more that matters?  Is there any birth that was special enough to compete with the joy and love that came in that small package one Christmas day thousands of years ago?  Never!
Today is Christmas.  We celebrate with joy.  I pray that you and your family have a merry one, filled with new memories and the remembrance of old ones.

Seventeen

Today is my seventeenth birthday, and I was going to use today's post to write down my hopes and goals for the coming year.  When my fingers hit the keyboard, instead of hopes and goals, this is what came out.  I want to share it with you.

Dearest Jehovah,

Thank You for the adventures You have led me on, the growth that You have prepared for me.   I have passed through both the flames of Satan and the sun of the pleasant fields of beauty You have created with me in mind.  I have fallen from Your grasp of my own accord, left Your embrace for a life of my own, thinking foolishly that it would give me the freedom I wanted, the freedom I thought I deserved.  But time and time again, no matter how far I, in my inability and weakness, have fallen, You are always there to catch me, to hold me tight, and to love me the way that no one else could ever love me.  Though I am but a slave, a worthless waif, You guide me into the paths that the Prince once walked, the paths that I now walk in His name.  You have made me Your princess, loved me as Your daughter, and let me call You my Abba, my Father.  You have become the One I live for, and with my every move I pray that I may achieve my desire to become closer to You and learn more of Your ways. You are my life, for my own has died.  You are my mind, for my own has perished.  You are my heart, for my own has broken.  You are my spirit, for without You I would not have one.  You are my Father, my Brother, my Love.  I live for You, and one day I shall die for You.  Thank You for rescuing me and loving me as Your own, for taking me from the sinister paths of the Evil One and giving me a new direction in which to travel. You are my All-in-All, my Alpha and my Omega, my Beginning and my End.  You hear the cry of my very soul when I am in anguish and You come to my rescue, forgetting the reason that I became hurt, forgiving the fact that I have time and time again turned my back to You.  In this next year, let my life be lived with the sole purpose of giving my all to You.  I cannot leave Your presence, or flee from Your Spirit. You are always here with me, to comfort and protect me. And I love You, Yeshua.  I love You, my Lord, my Protector, my Provider. 

Love,

Grace