My Grown Up Christmas List

This weekend I had a wonderful time. I frosted my third batch of Christmas cutouts.  Don't ask what happened to the first two batches. Bill and I took the two big kids to see Tangled--super fun movie--take your kids, boys and girls! And Bill took me to see White Christmas downtown. It was supposed to be a surprise, but I knew. I am an impossible person to surprise. I don't do it on purpose, I just ALWAYS know. It's a curse. It was a very busy weekend. Frankly, the whole season has been incredibly busy. I have made at least 14 batches of carmel corn, peppermint bark popcorn, and peanut butter cup popcorn, 3 batches of cut out cookies, we went on the Polar Express with the kids and my family, I've gotten together with friends, etc. I have been so caught up in doing things--and a lot of them are for other people--not in a bad way, but wanting to do things for friends and family, that I have really been missing Christmas. As I sit here and type this, I am thinking of my sister. She is having a miserable season. She is struggling to help her daughter, to understand what is going on inside of Juliana's tiny body, and frustrated that the doctors can't figure anything out. I am thinking of a family situation. A misunderstanding among brothers that is threatening to make Christmas awkward and painful. I am thinking of my sister-in-law, Marylou, who's brother has been diagnosed with terminal cancer while his wife is preparing to give birth to their first baby. Yet, while I sit here, Beth Moore's study, "Jesus" is staring at me. It is a reminder of what this season is all about and the answer to all of life's questions and problems.

2000 years ago, God came to earth as a baby. Jesus. Jesus came to save the sick, the misunderstood, the poor, and me. Sometimes I am all of the above... My hope is in Him, but when I see those I love suffering, my faith doesn't waver, but my frustration with this broken world increases. Watching my loved ones suffer, makes my soul cry out, "Jesus come quickly!" I don't know how much more some of them can take without cracking. So, I am praying to the Great Redeemer and Lover of My Soul, that those whom I love so dearly, would feel Christ's arms wrapped around them during this Christmas season. That they will feel love, like no other, hope for the future, and belief that this life is fleeting--just a tiny moment in the scheme of eternity--and the true knowledge that if they run this race with perseverance, never losing sight of the heavenly prize that awaits them at the end, they will finish at the feet of Christ and hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful Servant." That is all I hope for this season for those whom I love so much, that my heart breaks with them. That is my grown up Christmas list.