I am sitting here in my living room, my entire family is nestled in their beds all cozy and warm.  Hopefully they are dreaming sweet dreams.  The tree has its lights shimmering in the night and most of our stalkings are hung around the ceiling.  (We decorate new stalkings every year and hang up the past years around the ceiling..we are almost at 100).  I have just finished writing the Birchwood News article for December.  There is only one more to write before we leave.  I have pandora Christmas music playing softly in the back ground reminding me of what this season is truly all about.  This year seems to be a little more emotional for me and for our family.

I think of all it meant for Jesus to come here, to save us.  He knows, He knows what it is to prepare to leave everything you know, everything that is familiar for a foreign land.  He knows the anticipation, the joy, the sadness, He knows it all.  This year, being that we are only a little under six weeks away from leaving, what He gave up seems to be a little more real.  He was leaving for 33 years after having been by His daddy’s side for all eternity prior. I cannot imagine how hard that day may have been and how much he must have longed for His home while here.  We are only going for a year, but it is hard none the less.

I have a new appreciation for what He did for us, what He left behind and set aside for us.  I wonder how He could love us so much.  I look at how much I struggle each day, to love, to forgive, to praise Him in the storms and to know He loved me so much in spite of this, that not only was He willing to leave His home but He left knowing He would be murdered in the most horrific way so that my wrongs could be made right.  All I can do tonight is cry out thank you in my heart as tears roll down my cheeks.

My heart is so overwhelmed with the goodbyes that are soon to come.  I know great things lay ahead but tonight I am sad but oh so thankful that I have a God and Saviour who have walked this road before me and can comfort me in my sorrow.  They can also understand that mixed with my sorrow is great anticipation of what is to come and a joy of the great things that we know He will do.

The joy in my heart that I have when I think of what His coming here, to lay down His life for me has given me.  My cup overflows.  Life is good, life is hard, God is good!  I am grateful for this season of Christmas and everything that it accomplished, through the birth of Jesus.  I am set free, redeemed, and made righteous, able to love and serve God with my life…thank you Jesus.  Thank you!

Goodnight.