Decking the Halls 2011

We've had fun looking for Elfie every morning!

Visiting Santa at the Farm

Drew wants a Batman Geo-Trax set and Star Wars Legos

Libby wants Hello Kitty and for Santa to surprise her!

Why the Prophecies?

I mentioned that I'm reading Why the Nativity? by David Jeremiah with my women's small group in a previous post. It's an easy read at only about 150 pages or so and so far I've been enlightened. There are 25 questions Jeremiah asks over the 25 days of December. In my own sort of study, I thought I'd share some of his writings here to help enlighten you as well!

Question #1: Why the Prophecies? 

The people of Israel suffered greatly as they encountered times of grief and despair. They were frequently under attack by powerful tribes and empires since they occupied the most contested area of the world. Repeatedly, their homes and Temple were built, destroyed, and rebuilt. After this suffering, it isn't surprising that they started to lose hope and became doubtful that anyone would come to save them. They were carried away into slavery and many became bitter, cynical, and lost their faith. They yearned for a great king like in the days of David and Solomon.

This is when God sent prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah to urge them to keep the faith. They spoke of a better future with the greatest of all kings. A king that would end their struggle forever. Did you know that there are over 300 specific prophecies in the scriptures about the promised king - the Messiah as they called Him? I was surprised to read this fact. Three HUNDRED times. Wow. The stories were specific over hundreds of years and several different writings. It's not like they had Google to look up the stories to be sure they were all fabricating the same mythical story!

Do you know what the prophecies of this Messiah were? I didn't know all of them, so I'll mention only a few reviewed by the author:

1. The Messiah would be born of a virgin. (See Isaiah 7:14)
2. He would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2)
3. He would be "despised and rejected - a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief" (Isaiah 53:3)
4. He would be killed by crucifixion. An interesting fact about this prophecy was the surprising references to crucifixion by a writer who had never witnessed such a thing (see Psalm 22). To learn more about this, I found a website with a lot more detailed information about the Messianic prophecies. At the time that Psalm 22 was written (and long after), the penalty for blasphemy was stoning. When Jesus was condemned, the council no longer had the legal right to put people to death. Therefore, the sentence was put forth by the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, who crucified Him according to Roman custom.
5. "He would be pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed." (Isaiah 53:5)  This coming king would prove that God had never abandoned them.
6. He would bring salvation to the ends of the earth. (Isaiah 49:6)

Nearly all of the 300+ prophecies have already come true, yet some are reserved for our future.  As the author notes, "One mathematician determined that the odds of one person's fulfilling even 60 specific prophecies are 1 in 1 plus 157 zeroes."

So why the prophecies? As Dr. Jeremiah writes:

...we behold a magnificent God who works his purposes out through the march of time, patiently but faithfully down to the smallest detail. We know that this is a God who can be trusted, and this is a Messiah who fulfills every hope in our hearts.

Don't forget to check out my friend, Lisa's, blog as she writes about Why the Nativity? this month in preparation for Christmas. Oh, and GET.THIS.BOOK.AND.READ.IT! ;)

Breath of Heaven... Hold Me Together

Thanks to the generous hearts of hundreds of people, our church campus collected 315 shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child this year! I was amazed, overwhelmed, and full of joy the entire month. Our record for all 3 campuses combined was 241, so I set a goal of 300 this year. We beat that with just 1 campus! God provided and the spirit of Jack lives on inside us.

So, with that great news, why do I feel so down in the dumps these past few days? Maybe it's because Thanksgiving came and went and I couldn't help but think about Jack's family and how heartbroken they were that day. Or maybe it's because Christmas is around the corner and my heart is breaking for them even more. Or maybe it's the enemy at work, which he loves to do- ready to pounce at any time. I need to put the armor back on and fight it off, but it's not so easy.

I remember the first Christmas after Scott died. It was only about 6 weeks after his accident, so everything was still so raw. At first, Mom didn't want to decorate or have Christmas at all. That is so unlike her, since our house always was covered in decorations for every holiday. So, we urged her and together decorated the house. But the most painful part of all of it was at the end... when it was time to hang the stockings on the mantle. What should we do with Scott's? We ended up hanging it that year and then every year thereafter. But now... none of us still live at home since we are grown up, married, and have children of our own. I actually have Scott's stocking from my Dad's house. It was way too painful for Dad to have Scott's stocking out. Somehow I ended up with it. I haven't ever hung it with ours and wonder if I should continue to keep it or not. I'm not sure, but I'm not ready to just get rid of it. Twenty years ago, he was taken from us, but I want to hold on to a piece of him forever.

Christmas music is all over the radio stations here and I honestly am getting a little sick of it already (on Dec. 5th)! But I have heard a song in the past few days that I just love. Amy Grant is singing it and it's called "Breath of Heaven (Mary's Song)". It's about Mary and the birth of Jesus, but I can really relate to it since I'm a mother myself. I think about how Mary must have felt being chosen as the mother of the Messiah. Um, no pressure or anything! I think about how Joseph was so trusting of Mary and of God in this quite unusual set of circumstances with Mary being pregnant before they were married. I wonder if Joseph ever felt "out of place" being Jesus's father on earth, but really a stand-in father, if that makes sense. I wonder if Mary and Joseph ever felt the feelings we've felt as parents... fear, anxiety, frustration, guilt. But then again, Jesus never sinned, so maybe it was a cake walk for them. HA HA HA!

A lot of these questions and more are discussed in a great little book worth reading this time of year. It's called Why the Nativity? by David Jeremiah. My women's small group is reading it together and I really like it. So, put that on your Christmas list this year!

Breath of Heaven, hold me together... lighten my darkness.... help me be strong...

Do You Know Jack?

I have a total "God" story that I have to share with you. It started in the summer when I stumbled across Anna's blog "An Inch of Gray". Since then, my life has changed. Anna lost her son, Jack, in a tragic accident in early September. Here's the email I wrote to her just a few days ago...

Dear Anna,

I stumbled across your blog in the summer and started following you. That's when my "God moments" began...

I had heard about Jack's accident when it happened (on the news), but didn't realize until later that he was your Jack. After that, I just could not get you and your family out of my mind and off my heart- I seemed to be thinking of you ALL the time, when I started to pray- you came up, and so on. Then, things started happening-- I am a teacher for Fairfax County and I work with special needs preschoolers in their homes/daycares/preschools. I travel around and wouldn't you know-- I see several students in your neighborhood. All of a sudden, I found myself taking a wrong turn and started seeing these blue ribbons everywhere- on trees, signs, posts, mailboxes. I just KNEW those were for Jack. Then I saw the bridge with the little memorial there. I had to pull off the road and ball my eyes out. Again- I just wondered why I was so affected by people I haven't even met! Then, I was at CVS on my lunch break- at 12:00 on a Thursday- and I heard kids giggling. I looked over and there were some tweens or maybe teens in the Halloween aisle- all wearing DCS uniforms from Jack's school. Ok, what? So that's when I started praying for clarity-- okay, God, what do you want me to do with/for Jack and his family?

Then I saw your post about Operation Christmas Child. Turns out I am helping with OCC for our church - this is only my 2nd year doing it. So I prayed some more-- okay, God... I see there are lots of coincidences, but now what?? The other day I sprang up in bed and just KNEW what I had to do. I had to make more people aware of OCC by telling them about Jack's love for God and for helping the needy. I had to make not only my church know about it, but also other churches in NoVA. I even had the exact plan in mind (totally a God-thing) -- make a video/slideshow about Jack and how he loved OCC. I even had titles for each slide and took photos from your blog. I even had the title of it-- "Do You Know Jack?" About how Jack has the same spirit - the loving, compassionate, generous spirit - as most of us do. The spirit of Jesus. We all just need to act upon it by getting involved, packing a shoebox, and helping the needy. So even if you didn't know Jack personally, you KNOW his spirit! I'm in the process of putting it together and of course, wanted to know if this is something that you give me permission to do. I would like you to view it before I show it to anyone- just to be sure it is accurate and reflects your Jack. Because no one knows him like you do. :)

I feared that Anna would think I was a total weirdo or nut case for writing this! So, I prayed some more and wouldn't you know that she actually CALLED me to tell me she'd be honored for me to do this. In fact, Jack and his little sister made shoe boxes for OCC every year together. So, I worked on it and here it is:



Yay, God! ;)

Now it's your turn to help the needy just like Jack did- by packing a shoe box with gifts, school supplies, and hygiene items to spread God's love around the world! Take a look at the Operation Christmas Child website for more info...

Here's sweet Margaret (Jack's sister) preparing TWENTY shoe boxes this year! You go, girl!!! ;)

But you'd better hurry because time is running out! The deadline for shoe box gifts at our church (New Life) is November 20th, so get your shopping done soon!

Happy Halloween!

We had a fun Halloween this year. Guess how much we spent on costumes.... NADA! That's right, they were free, which is how we always had Halloween growing up with 5 brothers and sisters. I think that was pretty neat because we had to become more creative than ever trying to repurpose a witch's shawl or mask. We had this big cardboard box cleverly named "The Big Box"- and I'm not kidding about the name - that held off-season clothing and costumes. So when the seasons changed (well, sort of change in Louisiana), we would gather around Mama's bed and she dumped out "The Big Box" to see what would fit. It was like Christmas morning getting new hand-me-downs. I remember when my big sister, Gretchen, would wear clothes and I would scope them out because in a few short years, I might get to have them from "The Big Box"! Too bad she was always taller and thinner, though.

Anyway, back to Libby and Drew... Drew was Spiderman thanks to a friend, Laury, passing it down to us from her son. Drew only knows about Spiderman from his underwear and had no plan to dress up as him. However, he is also only 4 years old and easily convincible, especially when you REALLY REALLY hype up things-- "Oh, this is so cool, Drew. I bet nobody else will be Spiderman like you!" But guess what-- there were FOUR Spidermen in his class. Can you believe that? FOUR? Oh, and 1 was a girl, too. What's with that? I don't care because he was still adorable in that suit with the fake muscles and mask!

Libby was talked into wearing one of her fairy outfits that Pops and Maw Maw Deb gave her last year. It was one she had forgotten about since she hadn't worn it - you know, for like 3 months- so it was in the back of her closet. Well, it was like me waiting for "The Big Box" when she saw me pull that one out! Suddenly, we had a costume complete with accessories from their dress-up basket. That's MY kind of Halloween - FREE. Actually, my kind of Halloween is having Darrell bring them out in the cold around the neighborhood trick-or-treating while I eat pass out the candy in my warm sweats in the comfort of our home. Let's just say I had a serious Skittles hangover the next day since I must have eaten every bag of them in the mix bag. Sorry, kids!

Oh, did I tell you that the 1st trick-or-treater that showed up were 2 boys with pillowcases as treat bags that asked me for LEGOS instead of candy? Yeah, guess Halloween was brought to a whole new level, right? I just laughed at him and threw in a bag of Lemonheads. He's lucky I didn't throw in a butterscotch candy or better yet-- one of those yucky candies that was some sort of chewy brown nastiness that were wrapped in just plain orange or black wrappers. Did you ever get some of those? I always hated those. Wonder if they still make them.

Bearemy and Honeycomb

Libby and Drew had their first-ever experience at Build a Bear recently. Let's just say that it was well worth it because they now carry "Bearemy" and "Honeycomb" around everywhere. They love to take their PJ's on and off and we even had some leftover baby diapers that they put on them. It is quite adorable, I have to say. Plus they are really good incentives to behave since we threaten to take them away. Suddenly they become the 2 best listeners in the world! Luckily, they were easily persuaded to pick one of the cheapest bears, too. ;)

Adding the heart after some hugs and kisses

Bearemy

Honeycomb

Some tired, but happy kids and their babies