The Babe, the Christ, the Holy King

We take the holiest of things in our hands and desecrate, profane. We handle the God-child as though he were something we could manage, something we could manipulate.

Do we not know who he is?

Do we not understand that this ground is sacred?

Do we not recognize the Almighty?

Do we believe we are so great?

My heart pounds because there are so many things that I have done wrong. As a child, as a daughter, as a sister, as a wife, as a friend, as a mother. As a Christian. 

I can't decide if I hear the rumble of thunder, see the flash of fire and the flared nostril, or if I hear the angels' chorus,"Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."

"[O]n whom his favor rests"...is this me? Us? How could that be? And yet, that is what the Word says. Peace, favor, joy are given. 

This is Christmas. 

No more foolishly mishandling the holy. May we be blessing, honoring, and revering, using these hands, these voices, these hearts for "glorifying and praising," as the shepherds did. They recognized the holy, and they were amazed "for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told."

Everything's Bigger in Texas

You know how they say everything is bigger in Texas?

The Walkers' leaf pile is included.

Technically, it's already included, because of the word "everything." 

But hyperbole aside, this leaf pile really was big. 

Bigger.  

Biggest.

Just the way they like it. 

I'm not sure where Eliana is in these pictures. She might be in the pile. 

(Don't worry. She showed up eventually. She is safely sleeping in her bed now.)

Lit Up

I've had some ideas for blog posts floating around in my head for days:

-a new bag that I got when we were in Williamsburg, and I LOVE

-a crazy idea that would be so cool, but is not ever going to happen, but it's BRILLIANT, but an expensive home-improvement idea, so NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN. But...AWESOME

-some cookies I'm enjoying (a little too much, I should add)

-some new clothes from Old Navy that are very cute, and which I got a great deal on

In my mind, I was headed down a merry path; I even had the opening line(s?) of my post together. There was going to be a joke, a little funny (and mild) self-deprecation. All in good fun.

Then tonight I did Michaela's devotional. It was on the verses from Luke in which Jesus tells those who are gathered around to guard themselves against greed. He says,"Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions." He tells them a story of a fool who stores up his treasures so that he can eat, drink, and be merry, only to hear from God that night...his time is up. He finishes with,"This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God."

This devotion follows on the heels of the blog posts I have read these last couple of days by Ann Voskamp. She shared her own family's tradition of getting gifts for others outside of their family, others in need, each Christmas; this is their gift to Christ. She puts it this way,"And the Birthday Child tells us what He wants: Give to the least of these and you give to Me."

Sometimes God whispers. Sometimes he moves mysteriously. Sometimes he shines the floodlights on it and says,"Can it be plainer, daughter?" 

As I blink, I know...

My Big Girl, My Baby Girl

When Michaela was two years old (and four weeks), she was suddenly promoted to big-kid status since Christian came along and interrupted any babyhood that she was in the middle of. She was automatically my big girl, and she handled the raise well, as far as I can remember. She was fairly independent, and loved to do things right alongside of me; I don't remember her complaining about the fact that someone else was occupying my lap, her rightful place before that someone else came along. 

Ever since then, I have had high expectations of her. I think of her, and have for many, many years, as older than she is at any given age. She has often acted older, and not necessarily in an overly sassy manner. Mature, I mean. 

The trouble is that I then get frustrated when she does things or says things that are out of the range of "acceptable" for where I have her in my head. She's still so young! I forget! And I shake my head and think to myself,"What was she thinking?!"

The truth is, what am I thinking?! While I count it a blessing that I can depend on her for a lot of things that some eleven-year-olds might not be ready for, I also need to count it a blessing that she still needs me as a mommy...she still needs a great deal from me: direction and teaching, tucking in at night, making her baked potatoes. (She says they taste so good when I do it. Who am I to argue? I don't do too many things well in the kitchen.) 

I was thinking today about all of the things that she does that make me proud. She has been working once a week for another mom, helping out with a toddler, while the mom tries to get some schoolwork done with her other three kids. She has been so sweet with many of the little kids at our church (all different ages), and the little girls, especially, adore her. She has offered to use her Christmas money to help someone else out who was having trouble with peer pressure. She tries to help Eliana with her schoolwork/memory work (sometimes Eliana is a cooperative learner...sometimes not). She is diligent about practicing the piano, and she is accomplishing a great deal this year. 

In general, I think she's a pretty wonderful young lady. And I thought you might like to know that we are going to work towards rearranging her room soon. It won't hurt anything, as Kara said, and it will be fun, as many others said. 

But I will have to help her clean it up before we can move any furniture around. (You can barely move a person around in there right now.) It seems like one thing that I have assuredly passed on to her is my ability to disasterize a bedroom. I also know how to clean one up, though, and so...even though she is so grown up in so many ways, tomorrow I am going to teach her how to clean her bedroom. Again. And likely not for the last time.

Because even though she's so big, she's still my baby girl.

Advent Exuberance

Today, Michaela and I were heading to a birthday party she was invited to, and we passed a Chick-Fil-A. She exclaimed,"Oohh! The Peppermint Chocolate Chip Milkshake is back!"

She was lit up like a Christmas tree, all joy. 

It takes such small things for my kids to get excited. They are still full of the ability to be exuberant. Eliana cries out over an airplane (we're at the airport, and each airplane is just as exciting and wonderful as the last one)! Christian races to the playground as fast as he can (Stop running in the church please!!), even though he was on the same exact playground before lunch, and he's on it every day. Michaela...well, the milkshakes! That apple didn't fall far from the tree...

At the end of the day this first day of Advent, I wish for exuberance. The greatest thing that could ever happen in history happened! It is this that we (remembering) anticipate, (thanking) celebrate, and (yearning) wait for again. This joy that comes from knowing that my God and Creator, my Redeemer and Savior, broke through, came down, become man, humbled himself, lived perfectly, died willingly, rose victoriously, reigns supremely, judges righteously, loves unconditionally, and will return, release, renew...

this joy ought to change everything.

And I can tell you (there are witnesses) that it does not. I pray that this will change. Zechariah's song of praise through the Holy Spirit is beautiful, and right now, it is my prayer of praise, remembrance, and earnest asking.

68“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
    because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
⁶⁹ He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
    in the house of his servant David
⁷⁰ (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
⁷¹ salvation from our enemies
    and from the hand of all who hate us—
⁷² to show mercy to our ancestors
    and to remember his holy covenant,
⁷³     the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
⁷⁴ to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
    and to enable us to serve him without fear
⁷⁵     in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

⁷⁶ And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
    for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
⁷⁷ to give his people the knowledge of salvation
    through the forgiveness of their sins,
⁷⁸ because of the tender mercy of our God,
    by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
⁷⁹ to shine on those living in darkness
    and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

Luke 1:68-79

**edited to add: I began (again!) reading Reordered Love, Reordered Lives (David Naugle) and came across this passage in the Introduction:

Despite the stereotypes, the Christian faith is life-affirming rather than life-denying. It encourages believing people to discover what it means to be fully and truly human, to live exuberantly and fruitfully as God's creatures abiding in God's creation that was, and still is, very good. St. Iranaeus summed it up: "The glory of God is a person fully alive!" (emphasis added)

So, yeah. Hopefully I'm on the right path. [brushing tears from eyes]