Merry Christmas Eve!

Oops!? You guys?!!?

How did LITERALLY almost an entire YEAR go by here?

I knew I was feeling called to more quiet... less sharing of all my thoughts so publicly.

I was called more to Prayer in secret and waking (again/still) at 3am to intercede through most midnight watches in 2022. Add to that: real life, working a part-time job that took up more mental space than part-time jobs usually do, battling some physical ailments that made my OneWord (Strength) feel mean and tricky, and - well - I was tired, Y'all!)

TIRED!

  (Weary? Maybe a bit of that, too, as the year dragged on.)

I kept up the Monthly Newsletter for a bit longer than this blog, but even that practice got pushed to the side for a season.

However, I have been feeling a stirring... a reawakening to write, once again!

My, how I have missed it!

My temptation is to update you all on 2022 --but nothing major actually happened... 

We are all good, enjoying our jobs, we planted into a local church again, and my podcasts are still a thing --the Prayer podcast, entitled Made to Pray, releases a new episode every Monday morning while the other one with my girlie, Changing Our Minds, is - well - more sporadic (which tracks!) Lil' Miss is FIVE, you guys?! She is FIVE - and SO TALL it is ridiculous! She is still such a Joy... like a Giggle in human form. We are smitten still... (The magic of being a Papa and Mimi has not worn off!)

As I mentioned above, I have been feeling a stirring to sit back in this chair and tap out words.  I've been rolling it around in my mind and allowing myself to get a little excited, hopeful, -even a tad bit expectant about it! I figured I would start with the Annual Post I usually write out on New Year's Day. I'm sure I will... however, this morning I woke up with my mind in mid-sentence. I lay there still, slowly waking up and hearing a Christmas message unfold in my spirit. 

So I got up, grabbed a blanket, a pen, and a journal, and I wondered how the message started while I was still asleep.  I sat there waiting and thought, "We are ALL still waiting! We are all waiting for something... for someone... searching the horizon, looking for Hope."

Waiting... Waiting... it just keeps spinning in my thoughts and then it hits me! 

It's Advent - and Advent is all about waiting!

Christmas is here, and Christ came, and we are all still waiting...

Waiting for the World to Change, when in fact, it already did!

I feel the Holy Spirit nudging me to back up my perspective a bit --to zoom out... to encourage you to not just see Christ in the Cradle, or even Christ on the Cross, but to focus on Christ the King of Kings and Lord of Lords... the Ruler of the Universe... 

Our World changed the very moment God --GOD!!!-- chose to become flesh and dwell among us. When all of heaven watched the All Powerful, Omnipotent God curl himself small into human form and freefall from Heaven, floating in embryonic fluid to be pushed out into this world spinning out of control. (You can almost hear the gasp of the angels!)

It's hard to fathom --for many reasons. One, because it's so ridiculous that anyone would do that -much less GOD! And two, because our world still feels wild and wobbly, unsure and unsteady on its' axis!

But one-third of the Trinity volunteered to leave all of Heaven to come to earth - so He could show us a better way and so He could free us and bring us Home!

Home -- Jesus said He didn't have a home, but I think He was just stating the obvious: His Home cannot be found anchored in dirt and held together with wood and stone.  His Home is in Heaven and in every Heart that prepares Him room!

Not A room... We don't invite Him into PART of our lives... into PART of our heart.  We lay the whole thing down, laid bare on the altar, placed in the Hands who formed us first out of the dirt. WE are His Home - and He came on Christmas, yes.  He came as a Child, rose as the Christ, and He's coming again as our King!

Maybe in the past few years - you've lost sight of Him... lost sight of the Magic of Christmas and just exactly what Christ in the Cradle really means... what it really did. (Me, too, if I'm being honest.)

But as I look out my window into the still-dark morning sky, in the dim glow of the streetlights, I can see blankets of snow falling, bringing a peaceful, holy hush to our world that only a freshly fallen cover of snow can do.  And I remember...

He came to Cover everything!
 --to calm our fears and to forgive our debts, and to heal our wounds and our world.

Maybe your Flesh has been Fighting off fear... 

and your Heart has been Hesitant to Hope, 

and your Love feels a Little Lacking...

Maybe you're still waiting for Him to change the world 

--or at least to change YOUR world!

As Advent gives way to Christmas Eve day, and we celebrate the end of our Waiting Season, I pray you catch a glimpse of our God - who gave up all of heaven to get to you! 

And I pray you'll back up your perspective and not just see Him as a Babe wrapped in a Manger, but as Christ Crucified and Risen, as Christ the King who came for you... who is here even now, --waiting on us, wanting to walk us back Home!

All of Heaven and Earth changed already --over 2000 years ago, when Jesus became our Tribute - when the Triune God - God, who is Three in One, separated, so that we would be made One --be (re)made Whole! All the Change that was needed came - arriving on earth with the cry of a newborn babe, which sounds to the enemy very much like both "Eli, Eli, Lema Sabachthani!" (My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?) and "It is finished!"

--Something about Victory is Won! Your sins are Forgiven (-now go and sin no more! Our culture seems to have forgotten the second part of the verse!)...

--Something about Well done Good and Faithful Servant, now enter into His JOY!

Christ came as a baby, died as our Savior, and Rose as our King!

The moment He exhaled the breath of God out of tiny human lungs,

the atmosphere changed -- EVERYTHING changed!

Our Wait is Over!

We have been forgiven, redeemed, grafted in, and

adopted as sons and daughters --as the Family of God.

Inhale... Exhale...

Feel a thrill of Hope... 
& Rejoice, my friends!

Merry Christmas, Jesus! 

Thank You for coming!  

We're so glad you did! 

We want to walk with you, 

day by day, step by step, 

all the way back Home!

Merry Christmas, friends!

I'll be back next week!

(I promise!)