hope for the holidays.

Well, it's been almost a whole week since I got back from Thanksgiving, but it seriously feels like I've been back for 2 days. I've just been so on the go since I've been back.

Let's see...Thanksgiving...
It was really great to be home!
-I got to hang out with my family and have some fun with them.
-My mom, aunt, and I went shopping on black Friday which has become such an awesome tradition. We had so much fun and got some great deals!!
-I got to spend some quality time with Holly & Spencer as well some time with Amy and Joey.
-I met up with some friends from my 2nd high school that I hadn't seen in probably 3 years.
-I got to spend an afternoon catching up with my pastor from high school and his wife.
-I tried on yet another bridesmaid dress.

I think that's about it.

It was one of the best holidays that I've had at home in a long time. All of the girls in the kitchen looking at store ads and laughing about things that don't even make sense. This will be my first Christmas away from home. The holidays just seem so different this year.

I had a very insightful chat with my pastor from home and he has such a heart for missions and reaching out to people in our own backyard. I wonder how many people with great hearts for ministry have been burned by politics like he has. This institution that we call "church" doesn't often resemble much of what it means to be "the Church." So many fights happen about things that are mere adiophora. We lose sight of what's true, right, and good--sharing the Gospel with people who need hope.

Christmas often seems like a lot of adiophora to me. I could take it or leave it. There's so much hooplah and it usually ends up being more work than fun. But there was a night...that a baby came into the world; a baby that lay in a wooden manger. A baby that would one day hang on a wooden cross. That's our God.

I pray that all of the lights, decorations, the glitz and glam of the season, doesn't blind us from seeing Jesus come down to us. Our Prince of Peace. Our Light of the World. He came that night as a baby, He will come on the last day, and He continues to come down to us day after day to be our Savior. May that be the meditation of our hearts this holiday season.