Must be Christmas....

There are cookies and "haystacks" and bags of sugary popcorn and tubs of chex mix and my hand is constantly reaching for something then going straight to my mouth. Christmas must be close by.
My house looks like a jungle of bright red, pink, white and green....a poinsetta wilderness; Christmas has got to be near.
The space in our closet is filled with wrapping paper and very poorly hidden gifts and I can't walk through our bedroom without stumbling over something shiny. Yep, it is almost here.
There is a cabbage in the frig and chicken wings waiting for sauce and a fifty five gallon drum of sour cream in the drive way...Christmas eve is two days away.....
There are more cars in the driveway and packages on the porch.....
There are last minute desperate dashs to the store.....
All Christmas music radio is beginning to sound a lot like.....well.....
It is almost here! That silent, holy night when everything is ready, it is too late for one more thing to get done, and we finally rest and smile at Jesus.

My wish for all of you is this: Wonderful times with your familes, safe travel if you are on the roads, special moments alone with God, a gift you give that is loved by the receiver, a gift you receive that is very special and through it all the ability to love, forgive and be blessed. Merry Christmas!

Snow is nice for Christmas but....

I like snow for Christmas, but I have to admit that I also really like 60 degree weather this time of year. The last few days I have been able to run without putting on all the extra weather gear and it just feels better. Usually I run around our neighborhood but since the weather has been so nice I have run on a paved trail that was once a couple of railroad lines that the city converted into a walking/running/biking trail that will take you just about every direction you would want to go. Some places it follows a little creek, in other places it weaves through town and heading north from downtown it ends up out in the prairie in the middle of cornfields. I run acoustically, "unplugged". I do not want to carry a little box of music with me. Part of the joy for me is to hear nature while I see it....the wind blowing as the sun sets, a hawk screeching, doves calling, a dog barking somewhere.
It always seems like I can run easier when I am not dodging cars and avoiding people on the sidewalk and turning it into a "work-out". When I can just get lost in my surroundings my feet seem to barely hit the pavement and before I know it the miles slide by. It really is a joy. So today I am thankful for nice trails and nice days in December and good shoes.

Are You Ready for Christmas?

Christmas is almost here and the question is usually "Are you ready for Christmas?" In other words, have we got our shopping done, presents wrapped, tree up, food cooked, cards sent, plans made and parties scheduled? All really wonderful things that make this time special.

I love Christmas.I love presents, both getting and giving them. I love lights on houses, especially against the snow. It makes me feel like a kid. I love eating Christmas stuff. I love being around family and having days off. I like getting up early and making coffee on Christmas morning. I like the glimmer of hope Christmas and a new year brings.

Are you ready for Christmas? Looking at Jesus and his birth and what that means to me I would have to say yes....yes I am. His birth means forgiveness. It means reconciliation. It is a gift of life and Spirit and hope and belief and the value of every human birth. Jesus was born for one great purpose: To bring us to God and God to us.

I am so pitiful in my sin and weakness that it takes a child to save me. Before he could die as a man on a wooden cross for my sin he had to be born in a wooden manger. The innocent child looking up at the face of his Mother is the innocent man who would look down from the cross into those same eyes thirty three years later.

If Christmas means forgiveness and salvation I am ready for it. I am ready in March, in July in September....

Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun,
Which is my sin though it were done before?
Wilt thou forgive those sins through which I run,
And do them still, though still I do deplore?
When thou hast done, thou hast not done,
For I have more.

Wilt thou forgive that sin by which I won
Others to sin? and made my sin their door?
Wilt thou forgive that sin which I did shun
A year or two, but wallowed in a score?
When thou hast done, thou hast not done,
For I have more.

I have a sin of fear, that when I've spun
My last thread, I shall perish on the shore;
Swear by thyself that at my death thy sun
Shall shine as it shines now, and heretofore;
And having done that, thou hast done.
I have no more.

A Hymn to God the Father- John Donne.