Christmas Reflections

I was sitting on the couch this morning, studying for a final exam tomorrow (the last final of my life) and daydreaming (a regular occurrence). We have a nativity scene in our living room that my mom gave to me a few Christmases ago. It’s not something that I’ve never seen before; we always had one in the house at Christmas time. But today I was thinking about the innkeepers that Mary and Joseph visited. How could there be no room in the inn for a woman just about to give birth? Were they jerks or what? There was no room? Never mind that this was Jesus Christ – the woman is giving birth!

There was no room for Jesus. This challenged me, once again, to see how many times there is no room for Jesus in my life. Am I a jerk? I’m right on par with those innkeepers who sent Jesus away. Maybe sometimes I rank a little higher with the last guy who found a place out back in a stable for the Savior. Sometimes I squeeze Him into an otherwise busy life.

It really is a miracle. My sister just had a beautiful baby boy. He is tiny. He is weak. He cannot do anything by himself; he’s completely dependent on his parents. This was Jesus. There is one line in a song by Joy Williams called “Here With Us” that says, “It’s still a mystery to me that the hands of God could be so small. How tiny fingers reaching out in the night were the very hands that measured the sky.” It’s amazing that this is God – powerful and awesome placed in the most vulnerable and dependent forms.

How can we ever understand it? Christmas reminds me how much we are loved. We are so, incredibly LOVED by God!

Photos With the Man I Love

Thanksgiving weekend - David picked out this AMAZING bed and breakfast in Bonners Fairy, Idaho.

He also tricked me into believing these hedgehogs were real - it was very dark and I didn't had not brought my specs with me.

David on the Pend Oreille train - this is the same train from my favorite movie: Benny and Joon.

We camped out a few nights - the first night we slept under the stars (until the rain came down); on this night I had forgotten the flashlight at the previous campsite. We set 'er up under the light of the silvery moon (Davie wasn't too thrilled about this).

And I thought I'd throw one photo in from our honeymoon - this is on our little day hike to Seifleur Falls (sp?).

This brought back memories of high school math classes - this may have been one of my exams. One of the greatest joys in coming to the end of all of this schooling is never having to take another math class - ever!