My daughter recently had her first birthday. For her birthday I made her a wooden rocking horse. She didn’t ask for a wooden rocking horse. She didn’t really ask for anything, she was just turning one. But I’d seen her play with one and I saw the great excitement in her eyes!

Of course, she had played with lots of toys her ‘play-date’ friends had, and she liked them too. The plastic, loud, battery-using, sing- songy toys that always end up breaking in a few months...you know the kind. I could have bought her one of those. But I love my daughter a lot, and I wanted her to have, not only something that would last for years to come, but also something that would remind her of her dad. Something that would remind her of me not only when she played with it… but years later when this wooden horse is passed down to her own kids.

Matthew 7:11 says, “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gift to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gift to those who ask him!”

God wants to give us good gifts! He knows there may be bright, flashy things in the world that we think would make us happy for a little while, like the plastic battery-using toys my daughter thinks she wants, but he chooses to give us a gift that will last a lot longer… for eternity, and not just a gift for us, but one that we can pass on to our children. A gift filled with love, filled with everything that He is. A gift that reminds us of our Father every time we think about it. And this time of year, all the world begins to think about that gift. A gift that is so much more than a wooden horse.

However much I labored, in love, making that horse for my daughter, it will never compare to the total love we received when God sent His only begotten Son, as an infant, to this world to save us all.

As you give and receive presents this Christmas season, remember the reason we give gifts in the first place…. And remember Matthew 7:11

“If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gift to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gift to those who ask him!”

Childbirth sure seems like a miracle. You have sex. Grow tired. Grow bigger. Grow a baby in your belly and breathe and push through enormous pain resulting in the most beautiful, amazing, tiny little baby. It’s just amazing and miraculous. This miracle happens every day. I pray you may partake in this miracle, as a mommy or daddy, in due time.

God becoming a baby: now that IS a miracle. Astounding. Bizarre even. Definitely miraculous. Last night I saw a huge orange moon, two shooting stars, and many beautiful Christmas lights including Old Main’s. We had Christmas open house at the Songer’s where we enjoyed one another, yummy foods, and sang Christmas carols. All in all the evening was magical. The Christmas season, when I slow down, reflect and enjoy it, is always simply…magical.

I do think it’s fitting that Christmas feels so magical. A miracle so amazing, birthed from such love, should feel magical. Enjoy the season. Enjoy His love as you celebrate His birth!

Let me start out by having a small disclaimer here. My intentions for this blog are not to make it depressing, sad, or even a tear jerker. The reality of it, it very well may be a blog that does just that. I mean, who wants depressing news the week of Christmas right? Not me, but this is something that is Amber and I are dealing with, and I would like to share it with you, not for sympathy, but for encouragement.

Back in August, the week before school started, Amber and her family learned that her grandfather’s cancer had returned. Not only had it returned, it had spread and become much worse than it was before. This news came to a shock for the family as about a month earlier he was helping set up for a wedding!

Questions run through your head as to why, how long, what’s next.

The following months turned into being a bit of a roller coaster as well. Some ER visit’s that turned to be somewhat scary and frightening, as well as the frequent treatments for the cancer.

Thoughts ran through my mind as well as Amber’s. Things like, Will Grandpa be at our wedding? Will he be around for the holidays? What happens when the time comes? One thing we knew for sure, grandpa was dying.

No one likes death. No one finds pleasure in death. There is a tendency to be very selfish when death is upon us, selfish in terms that our loved one is leaving us and we are stuck here and we don’t like it. Now we have the hope that one day we will rejoice with them in Heaven, and that brings some light to a very dark time.

Now we are a week before Christmas, and grandpa is still with us. Now we find ourselves thinking about what if he goes now. The rest of our lives we remember Christmas as the time of year we lost grandpa. Again your mind becomes filled with thoughts.

While these last four months have been a very long hard four months, I have to say; I am extremely encouraged by Amber’s Grandpa. We express that we are sad that he won’t be at our wedding, but he reminds us that he will, and he will have the best seat in the house. We talk about how sad it is to see him dying, and he reminds us that it’s ok, this is the transition period to new life.

These last four months he has been an encouragement to me in many ways. He has simply reminded me and the family that he is going home. He even says that he is ready to go home, be with his mom.

It is a huge comfort knowing that a man of God is at peace with his death, and is even embracing it. The way he has embraced his death, the way that he looks forward to rejoicing in heave with us someday, all of that is extremely encouraging!

Finally, I find comfort knowing that I have a God who loves and comforts me. I find comfort in the fact that when Grandpa’s time comes, he will leave the physical earth, he will transition into new life.

Revelation 21:1-7 1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among themt,4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away."

Recently I have been thinking a lot about what to do after this year of internship is over. As I think, a number of possibilities come to my mind. I could stay here at Eastern and do a second year of internship, I could pursue a campus ministry job on another campus somewhere, possibly even in another state, I could search for job in family services, the field of study in which I earned my bachelor’s degree, I could start an all girl band and travel the world, I could join the circus, or I could play the lottery and hope to win big (ok, a few of those may not be real options ). Anyhow, sometimes these questions and possibilities can really weigh me down. So heavy!

In the first few chapters of his book Hearing God, Dallas Willard explains an interesting concept about knowing and doing God’s will. He explains that God may not be so interested in giving us specific answers and instructions about all of the who’s, what’s, when’s, where’s, and why’s of life. Instead God is most likely more interested in developing in us, through the work of His Holy Spirit, the kind of character that makes good and wise decisions in everyday life; just like the father of a maturing child does not always tell him exactly what he should do, but instead teaches him how to make good decisions on his own. As I think about making big life decisions, I think this concept still holds true. If it seems like God is staying silent on the particulars of where I should go and what I should do, maybe it’s because He is leaving it for me to choose. As long as I know that it is my duty as a disciple to love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, love my neighbor as myself, and make disciples as I am going out into the world, then maybe He is leaving it up to me to decide where and how to do that.

So, all this thinking about what’s next makes me think about vision. What does it mean to have vision? Where do my gifts, talents, and passions meet with the world’s needs? How do I discern my vision from God’s vision? Sitting on my bookshelf is an excellent book I read a few years ago called Visioneering by Andy Stanely. Through a study of the life of Nehemiah, Stanley writes about “developing and maintaining” a God vision versus a good vision. It is a great read, and I highly recommend it.

So, as I think about my own life, future, and vision, I propose a question to you… “What is YOUR VISION?”

No, not “dryness” as opposed to “wetness.” But spiritual “dryness.” Becoming spiritually “dry” happens to all of us at one time or another. It is sort of the “dirty little secret” of the Christian life that most of us hesitate to share—and many of us will not even admit exists.

Seventy years ago, Hannah Whitall Smith, wrote this little devotional classic entitled, “The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life.” The title might make you think that she believes that living as a Christian is all sunshine, flowers, and rainbows, with happy-little-puffy- white- clouds. And, that there is some “secret” formula that will absolutely guarantee that you will never again be anything but happy all the time if you only become a Christian. But you would be wrong. In fact, her reason for writing the book in the first place was that the dichotomy between the life Christians “ought” and “want” to live stands in such contrast to the life that Christians “really” live.

So, “dryness” happens. It almost never happens suddenly—all at once. Like a literal drought which creates a physical desert out of a previously lush climate, spiritual drought (dryness) creeps up slowly. It may come from laziness—like failing to regularly feed your soul from God’s Word, or failing to deal with insidious temptations before they erupt forth in sin. Or, “dryness” may come from weariness—life can come at you with a vengeance. Illness, grief, broken relationships, stress—all of these life situations can bludgeon you until you are completely spiritually fatigued. “Dryness” comes from any of a multitude of sources and influences.

You have probably been there. I have been there. Actually, I AM there today as I sit and write this blog. The one thing I do know, is that the “dryness” will eventually come to an end. If I will begin to do my part to reclaim the freshness in my spiritual life, God certainly will do HIS part to refresh, renew and restore me.

Actually, having written this, I am beginning to feel a little better already. Strange. Strange indeed.