December 20

We are down to our final week leading up to Christmas! In less then week from now my family will load up the sleigh  minivan over the river and through the woods - or through Michigan as the case may be - to Grandmother's house we go! Until then, we've got one more day of school to wrap things up until the new year and a few errands to run.
This season has been different on a few fronts. I sent out absolutely no Christmas cards this year. So if you usually get one from us, you can stop looking for it. It ain't coming. And I've done absolutely no entertaining in our home this year.  Hey - I'm just trying to feed my family! And I missed the cut off date for most all of my packages to get in the mail. As Kenny Rodgers once said, "you gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em". On the other hand, it's made for a much calmer home and calmer me which my family appreciates.  I've been able to focus on this crazy book club idea.  And instead of waiting in a long line at the post office, I've had time to read "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" to the kids and go for a family walk that included the best snowball fight ever! And we took an awesome mini vacation to New York City with memories made that we'll cherish forever!  So different isn't necessarily worse.  It can be downright refreshing:)
OK - back to business. We're up to the really exciting stuff - Jesus' coming is really close now and John the Baptist will be sent before him to prepare the way of the Lord! The silence between the Old Testament and New Testament era is about to be shattered. But silence does not mean forgotten! The miracle always is that God is gracious, that grace carries us and breathes life into the dead and impossible places, that grace - a thousand graces- explodes the doubting silence in our hearts. (200)

I thought it was worthy to contemplate the two different kinds of doubt - one that fully lives into the questions, and one that uses the questions as weapons against fully living. (201) referring to the different reactions of Mary and Zechariah as an example. And I say - I think she may be onto something! As I consider my doubts in the future, I'll have to think more about what kind of doubt it is and if it's a kind of weapon that can cause destruction.

And as John comes to prepare the people for the coming of the Lord, I am assured He will prepare your heart for the coming of the Lord.(201)

I'm thinking that if it weren't for going through this book during this Advent season, I'd be way more upset about not getting the Christmas cards out or mailing the packages soon enough (or at all at this point) to get there in time for Christmas. I have such a peace this year! You don't have to earn Christmas, you don't have to perform Christmas, you don't have to make Christmas. You can rest in Christ. You can wait with Christ. You can breathe easy in Christ. (201) OK. Sounds good!

Some real gems at the end of the chapter that I find refreshingly countercultural says - And the good things in life are not so much health, but holiness; not so much riches in this world, but relationship with God; not so much our plans, but His presence - and He withholds no good thing from us because the greatest things aren't ever things.
He doesn't withhold Jesus from you. Christ is all your good, and He is all yours, and this is always all your miracle.(202) Sigh ….

And finally - No matter the barrenness you feel, you can always have as much of Jesus as you want. (202) A comforting thought to end on!

Question #1 - God has seemed silent to me during times when something has been done to me and I've felt like a helpless victim. I wonder what I've done to be treated this way? And even in the rawness of those moments I remember that He became a victim for me.  He lived the ultimate injustice.  He knows just how I feel and then some!