Merry Christmas

Which could also be titled, "Things don't always go as we have planned."

First of all, there was our valiant attempt at a nice Christmas photograph. Last year, Mira was at the end of her six week hospital stay, so we couldn't get a photo with everyone. This year, we dressed nicely for the Bulgarian Christmas party, and found a friendly stranger out in the hall just before the potluck line opened who was willing to take a series of photos for us.

We got home that night, looked through them, and found we had a good one!!!

Except there's one problem with the photo. Leah pointed it out, first, after trying to figure out who Eben was supposed to be matching in his green. Reuben, of course, who was dressed in a nice, green dress shirt. Reuben, who stood with us for a few moments and then found his way to the cupcake section of the buffet line. Stinker.

But no worries - we can try again at the Christmas Eve service at church, right?

Well, here's where that got us:

You'll notice we're missing more than just one in this photo. But between the stomach bug that's worked its way through our family this weekend, and the trip that Matt took with Mira to the ER to get her admitted for (a rather mild) pneumonia that overlapped with the time of the service, this was all that made it. I shared it with Matt at the hospital, and his response that it wasn't bad except for the missing adult and five missing children. :P

Needless to say, tomorrow, Christmas Day, is going to be a pretty low-key day for us as well as those who are still recovering keep recovering. We'll try to bake cookies. Matt's hoping to watch one of the gospel movies (maybe John again - he and Bobbi watched it while she was still inpatient). And although it would have been fun to go with the original plan to be with their local cousins and open a bunch of presents, it's also good sometimes, to NOT have anything of that sort going on for Christmas Day, because so many times, it can just be a distraction.

Two Sundays ago, the advent theme at church was joy, and our pastor preached a simple, yet powerful sermon on the source of joy. He looked at the joy of the wise men and that of the shepherds, and made, from a basic, familiar text, a bed-rock-of-life giving source of joy. So, when exactly is it that the wise men rejoiced? What was the trigger for their rejoicing?

When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. ~ Matthew 2:10

And that's it. See that? It's not when they saw Jesus with their own eyes, or when they saw the star first appear and they started their journey. Instead, it's when they (reading from verses 5, 6, and 9), saw that the star stopped right where God had said it was going to stop. The source of their joy is not directly that Jesus was born, but that God is true to his word. His word can be depended on. (And, by the way, isn't the description of their response fabulous? It's not enough to just rejoice, or rejoice with joy, but they are rejoicing exceedingly with great joy.)

You see a similar thing with the shepherds on the very night of his birth.

And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. ~ Luke 2:20

The same reasoning is there - it's because everything they'd seen had been just as they'd been told it would be. When God speaks, it's dependable. 

Because, really, if God's word is not dependable, then the Word, Jesus, is not dependable, either. But because God does prove his word to be true, all of what he has promised is solid enough to base our life on. And that's a source of joy that the unpredictability of our own existence just can't hold a candle to. So, while things don't go as we have planned, that's okay. It never strays from what He has promised.

And with that, a Merry Christmas to all of you!!!