The Light of the World is Still Here!

Hope you all had an amazing Christmas! I felt so blessed to be able to spend Jesus' Birthday (& Birthday Eve) with my wonderful family.  The longer I spend living on the other side of the country from them, the more I appreciate these precious times we spend together.  There is no better way to spend the birth of our Lord and Savior than with the ones you love most in the world.  I feel like these kinds of perfect moments filled with warmth, joy, and love are little glimpses given to us by God to give as a tiny inkling as to what Heaven will be like someday.

There were several times through out the past couple days I caught myself looking around soaking in every detail.  I know all too well that nothing stays the same forever, our time on earth is short, and people sitting at the table with you this year, could be gone from this world in a heartbeat.  I thought a lot about my brother this year. It is almost unfathomable that this is our 7th Christmas without him. I like to think he was looking in on us over the last couple days, seeing how much he's missed, and knowing we'll be with him again one day.

That's what I was most grateful for this year (and every year).  More than presents, more than the lovingly prepared food on the dinner table, more than making sure every last detail is in place for your Christmas party, Christmas is about celebrating Jesus coming into the world to take on our sin so that it would be possible for us to spend eternity with Him. Which of course brings me to my main point :)

I am so guilty of feeling the let down, after Christmas. The radio goes back to the "regular stuff," lights and decorations come down, the cheer felt around world seems to slowly fade away into the abyss and people are ready for summer.  But I've come to terms with all that fades away is the "commerciality" of what Christmas is and not what it really is.  Jesus doesn't pack his bags and vacate the planet come December 26th.  Every bit of the hope we felt celebrating all those years ago when he was born, is a hope He WANTS us to carry with us every moment for each of the 365 days of the year.

I LOVE Matthew West's song, "Day After Christmas," for this exact reason. It's message says just that and is a great reminder of why we celebrate Christmas and why it doesn't (or shouldn't) just all go away at 11:59pm on Christmas night.  I've posted a video of him performing it below.  You can also find a version on YouTube with the lyrics.  If you've never heard the song, you're in for a treat, and if you have, you're still in for a treat ;) His Christmas album, "The Heart of Christmas," that the song is on, is one of my all time favorites!

Xo, 

Lauren

He Was There

It’s taken me a while to find the words to capture how I feel about what happened in Newtown last week. Then I realized that’s just it. There aren’t any words, they’re will never be any words. What happened to those children and their teachers is unspeakable. Broken hearts were felt around the world by people who didn’t even know the victims.

Of course in the days that followed, everyone had an opinion about why it happened, what could have been done differently, and what needs to be done to change things in the future so that it NEVER happens again. There were conversations about gun laws, mental health, and the amount of violence we expose children to through movies, music, video games, and every other kind of media outlet.

I only reacted negatively to one thing that I kept hearing over and over. There are these “notes from God” circulating around the internet. I've posted a picture to the left, so take a second and read it. While searching for it, I saw  there are even t-shirts. I get it, I do. People are angry that the same people that want to remove God from these environments then blame Him whenever something horrible happens.

My problem is this... the subtext of that message is saying that people have the power to tell God where He can and cannot be, and implying that He wasn’t at Sandy Hook Elementary School last Friday.  That’s the furthest thing from the truth and it's the wrong message to put out there. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that God was there, that His arms were wrapped around those twenty six people as their last breaths were taken that morning.

God’s presence is more than just a word in the pledge of allegiance or an audible prayer. Just because people say they don’t want Him in public schools, does not mean God draws a line at the entrance and makes sure not to cross it. God doesn’t work that way and I for one, am grateful. My prayer is that people don't use what happened as an excuse to blame God, but rather as a reason for why we so desperately need Him.

“Am I only a God nearby,”

declares the Lord,

 “and not a God far away?
Who can hide in secret places
  
so that I cannot see them?”

declares the Lord.
  
“Do not I fill heaven and earth?”

declares the Lord.
~ Jeremiah 23: 23-24

Xo,
Lauren