CHRISTMAS 2019

Selections from 2012...

Puzzles were part of our Christmas activities.  Why?  I swore that when I grew up, no more puzzles.  I'm not big on crossword puzzles either.  Puzzles were the worst part of teaching preschool: do you know the shame when a toddler can put one of those clunky wooden ones together faster than you?    And then, puzzles seem to always have a missing piece.  My job at the puzzle table was to crawl around under it to look for the piece that went astray.  Merry Christmas.

God's love was so immense that it stretched from heaven to earth to place a bebe into human arms.  Heart strings are painful when stretched so far.  We can't even imagine what it meant for Jesus' place to be empty in heaven.  It was because we have a God-size void in our lives, a missing piece, that God sent "Emmanuel, God with us."

I read somewhere that in French, you don't really say, "I miss you."  You say, 'tu me manques,' which means 'You are missing from me."  I love that.  The one in the manger is our missing piece, the One missing from us.  God also could say of His Son, "You are missing from Me."  Oh such love!

Mother's Rocking Hymn, 1615

"When God with us was dwelling here,

In little babes He took delight:

Such innocents as thou, my dear,

Are ever precious in His sight.

Sweet baby, then forebear to weep;

Be still my babe; sweep baby sleep."