Yesterday, I was going through the pictures on my camera and found some that deserve a blog post. Well, I did intend to post some of them last week, but better late than never.
Saturday, I walked down to the railroad tracks with my camera and here are the resulting photographs.
During and after Christmas, I had the great joy of hanging out with all of my cousins. And as always, it was fun. Today some of us went to the mall and while we were there we decided to have a scavenger hunt (and to my cousins who did not go, we are doing this next time we see y'all). Here now the evidence of our adventure, and possibly our immaturity.
And while I am thinking about it, here is the list of things we were supposed to do on our scavenger hunt:
Find a book written by a Youtuber
Find a holiday candle
Find Star Wars merch that was not in Barnes and Nobles
Take a picture of our team wearing hats
Take a creepy picture of an old man
Find a weird purse
Try on some clothes
Try out some make-up samples
Sit at a furniture display
Naturally, I do not have pictures of each item each team found, but as it is, this is a picture heavy post, so enjoy (and photo credit to my cousins Deborah and Abigail).
Here's my beautiful team :)
Both teams ended up picking the same book.
And different candles
The guy in the background was the subject of my team's creepy-old-man picture.
Once we were through with our scavenger hunt, we decided that this should become an annual tradition. So hopefully, there will be more of these posts in the future. Who knows?
On Christmas day, I had the privilege of celebrating the birth of Christ: the coming of a Holy God to a fallen world. Friday morning, I woke up and read the second chapter of Luke as I always do on Christmas morning. And then I flipped back to read my daily Psalm. On Christmas morning, I read Psalm 22 which opens with, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far off from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning." 33 years after His birth, Christ spoke those words as He hung on the cross to die for man's sin.
I do not follow any particular Bible reading plan. I read a few chapters of the Bible a day until I finish it, then I start over. This year, I started reading a couple of Psalms along with my daily Bible reading, and through no planning of my own, the Psalms I read are always relevant to my day to day situations. I could have in no way planned for my daily reading to fall on the Psalm that spoke of Christ's suffering on the cross, anyways, not without some serious calculating. Yet, with my imperfect stumbling through the Bible, I still got a glimpse of the whole of Christ's life.
The reason for celebrating Christmas is more than just remembering His coming, it is remembering the reason Christ came. To suffer, to die, to bear the sins of His people so they could have His holiness and live eternally with Him. Christ came because of His love, and that is something worth celebrating.
Christmas is
my favorite holiday. The season surrounding it is full of great things. Peace
on earth, goodwill towards men, love and family. Everyone who
celebrates Christmas enjoys these things. But why? The spirit of the season
certainly does not come from the commercialization of the holiday and
the traffic and the last minute shopping and the cold weather. It is the
celebration of the birth of Christ that makes Christmas a
holiday worth celebrating. When December rolled around this year, I forgot
that. I was merely happy about the happiness of the season, I did not
think about the reason to be happy.
Happiness is good, but in loving it for its own sake, I found happiness to
be pretty hollow. It is not that I forgot what Christmas is about, I just did
not take the time to ponder the wonder of it, and that is a shame. At Andrew
Peterson’s “Behold the Lamb” concert, he refers to the Christmas story as “The
True Tall Tale of the Coming of Christ.” As a Christian, I have a great privilege
come Christmastime. I get to celebrate the coming of God to earth. God who saw
that in my sinful state I needed to be saved and came to this earth to live a perfect
life in my place, die the death I deserve to die, and then to rise from the
dead and conquer death.
Admittedly, the coming of Christ to this
earth is worth celebrating all year. But if there is a time of year set aside
just to remember Christ’s coming to earth, I ought to take advantage of it. It
is, after all, the birth of Christ that makes Christmas worth celebrating. It gives happiness. It brings a spirit that
outlasts the season.
This past week has been a busy one, and it has been a good one.
Monday, a friend helped me finish my wonderfully horrific Christmas sweater and that evening, I wore it to a party.
Tuesday, I made pancakes for dinner.
Wednesday, my littlest siblings and I made sparkling pinecones.
Thursday, I finished my Dad's Christmas present.
Friday, my family and I went to see Andrew Peterson's "Behold the Lamb" show. It was incredible. Seeing Andrew Peterson live further cemented his place as one of my favorite artists. His performance exceeded my expectations.
And last night, I went to see The Force Awakens. It did not disappoint, and I might already be planning to see it again in the coming week.
And so went my week!
And because of the concert, here's a song worth listening to.
Of all the people in the Bible, I can easily say David is not among my favorite. For the past couple months, my family and I have been going through the books of I and II Samuel. In those books, David showed himself to be a lot of things. A murderer, an adulterer, a womanizer, a dead-beat dad, a prideful king. Yet, those things are not what defined David in the eyes of God. In Acts 13:22b, God says of David, "'I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.'" It was through the line of David, that God allowed His earthly temple to be built. It was by David's hand that some of the most beautiful poetry put to paper was written. And it was through the line of David that God brought His son Jesus Christ into the world. God blessed David, and He also loved him enough to discipline him.
David was a man passionately in love with God. He did sin, but he also repented. He patiently bore the consequences of his sin, knowing he justly deserved them. In Psalms 51:10-12, we read the words, "Create in me a pure jeart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of my salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me." After committing the sin of adultery and instigating the murder of a man, David wrote this Psalm of repentance, and after that he never again committed the sins of adultery or murder. He clung to God's grace, and strove to live a holy life after his mistakes.
So there was David, a man after God's own heart. And then there is me, a well-behaved, law-abiding, self-righteous little Pharisee. David's life makes me look like a saint. But could it be said of me that I am a woman after God's own heart? More often than not, it sadly cannot be said of me. I am a selfish girl. Many times I use the excuse of living in my own skin to pursue my own lusts, but that is far from being a legitimate excuse for selfishness.
By the grace of God though, He does discipline me and draws me closer to Him. I have to learn to pursue God and love Him whole-heartedly, just as He loves and pursues me. And by His grace, I can learn to chase the heart of God instead of chasing me.
This week I did a better job trying to take a picture everyday. Except I did not take a picture everyday. This afternoon, my family and I decorated our house for Christmas, and instead of photographing the event, I put the tree together instead.
But for the rest of the week, here goes. Sunday afternoon, I made myself some stretchy pants because winter is coming, and I am thin-blooded.
And also because
Did anyone else feel that quote coming. No, just me. Sorry, I cannot escape the power of Nacho Libre.
Monday, I made apple cider for the first time this year.
Tuesday, I made Christmas cookies.
Wednesday, I finished my blazer, which was a disappointment to an extent. I picked the wrong kind of fabric to make a blazer with. It refuses to hold the creases I iron into it, and it instead picks up wrinkles that should not be there. But it looks good.
Thursday I made kheer, which is an Indian rice pudding. Chances are I will make it again.
Friday, I made more stretchy pants. I have not worn stretchy pants in years, and I had forgotten a garment could be so fun.
