Can you believe it has already been over two weeks since Christmas?! I swear, my life is flying by (that's my excuse for this post being slightly late)! Anyways... this was my first Christmas officially living away from home. All week I had heard weather updates calling for a white Christmas and all week I was a little nervous that I wouldn't make it home before the storm hit and trapped me. Don't get me wrong, I love Waynesboro, but spending christmas there, separated from my family, was just not an option. Thankfully the skies held off until Christmas day and I made it safely home Thursday night- Christmas Eve eve. Christmas is so much sweeter when spent with people that you love... And that is just what I got to do. (:
At the end of every Christmas service, Father Joe (the priest at my parents' church) gives everyone a task: trace a cross on the foreheads of those you love, letting them know that you love them and claiming them for Christ. And the sweet part- my mom does it every time. Because she loves us. I'm blessed to be a part of a family that loves genuinely. We are by no means perfect... not even a little, but the incredible blessing is not lost on us and loving each other covers up the messes that we each bring to the table as humans.
"Above all, love each other deeply,
because love covers over a multitude of sins."
1 Peter 4:8
And then the snow began to fall...
So we bundled up, trusted the 4-wheel drive, and braved the weather to make it to North Carolina.
{Sophie, my cousin Stephen, Rachel, my cousin Scott, and me.}
Good lookin' bunch, huh? (:
This has been an incredibly thought provoking Christmas for me. We have several Jehovah's Witnesses that work at Chick-fil-A and if you didn't know, Jehovah's Witnesses do not celebrate Christmas. That fact prompted so many conversations surrounding why we should or shouldn't celebrate Christmas. I read and reread the Christmas story and after all of that, I am convinced that we are absolutely called to rejoice and celebrate the birth of our Savior.
"The shepherds returned,
glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen,
which were just as they had been told."
Luke 2:20
I hope your Christmas was blessed with time with loved ones. And tonight trace a cross on the forehead of those that you love, letting them know that they are dearly loved and claiming them for Christ- the one who lowered himself to be a man so that we might be lifted into eternity with him.
"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself and became obedient to death-
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father."
Philippians 2:6-11
{the beauty we saw outside my grandparents house before we headed home in the blizzard}
Until next Christmas,
B
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