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happy New.

it continues to pour, yet we cannot hold more
and so we switch glasses quickly.

a late night countdown, and hope abounds
but sounds can be deceiving

underneath the thin veil of energy and smiles
there resides miles of suffering and need.
people who bleed.

people who have bled
for a long time already
and would be dead if they hadn’t convinced themselves
they had plenty.

a new year begun, and the songs that are sung
seem like something we’ve heard before
the hope of the world rests in simply changing a number
we begin to wonder
if there might be more.

What is new?

Beyond a new calendar and a midnight kiss
something we so often miss
glazed over in the morning after
realizing we want more than a new chapter

We want a new book.

And so we look back at how the world shook
When Christ entered the scene. We see what it means…New.
Less of me, more of you. And so, we drop the “year”
and simply say, “Happy New”. 🙂

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parenting snot always fun. :)

Christmas continues at our house, with a constant reminder that the life of a parent means continually practicing the art of “less about me”.  Because the accident we went through in Chicago a week before Christmas wasn’t enough, the days before Christ’s birthday also became filled with ear infections, pink eye, and cough’s so raw it made you cringe.

I’ll give a big “Thanks Mom” at this point, because I know I didn’t have 100% healthy days growing up.

Any parent will nod with sympathy, at the feeling you get when your 3 year old comes up to you while you’re still half asleep.  She looks at you with those large, swollen pink eyes.  She rubs yet another layer of snot on her pajama sleeve, and coughs something that’s been working its way up all night long.  A miserable expression, and a moan.  She doesn’t have to say a word, you know she just needs to be held…comforted.

The hard part comes 2 days later, when you’ve got the aches, the stuffy head, and the cough that feels like sandpaper must be lodged deep inside your throat somewhere.  You feel like you need to spend an entire day in a bed that alternates between a menthol steam-room, and a hot tub made of feathers.  But there’s no time…all 3 kids are sick, and you’re very being is wrapped around caring for them.

“The Word became flesh, and made it’s dwelling among us.”  As our pastor reminded us this past week, Jesus wasn’t the “new/updated plan” when an earlier effort didn’t work.  God had always intended on “God with Us”.  He saw the broken and suffering state of his creation/people, and moved to be with them – even knowing that by doing so – he would be broken by the very same ailment.  The same brokenness that caused his people to suffer, would bring him pain and suffering like we could never imagine.  God Loved us, and as a father caring for his children – no matter the cost – He came and gave all.  In return, we are given more than comfort in our affliction – we are freed from it. 🙂

Imagine if holding our children while they’re ill caused us to be ill – and left them completely healthy?  Then imagine our children, free of all coughing and snot, going out to find their illness again.  Seems rather silly, doesn’t it?

So let’s live as the people of God who have been set free of sin and self!  The New Year beginning sure seems like an appropriate time to place “self” on the altar, and walk away.  Thanks be to God, for his indescribable gift! 🙂

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Advent: Week Five – Christmas

Light.
So bright, it brings fright.
Not fright from the night, but fright from mysterious new sight.

Not understood, and never seen before – but impossible to ignore.
Though some will.
New waves have crashed the shore, and the scenery has changed for – ever.

The Word, so powerful it once created all things, all beings.
Light from dark, order from chaos, and something from nothing.

The Word, so powerful it declared over all things created “It is good”
And it was.

The Word.
Became flesh.
Dwelt among us.

All that we’ve seen or heard or lived or experienced before,
has only been a shadow of this wave on this shore.

This grace. This truth.

Known since our youth, but finally known.
And now that we’ve grown, we are children.

Welcoming Jesus.

“The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.(John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” ’) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart,
who has made him known.” John 1:9-18