Saturday, December 23, 2006

Countdown

This week has gone much too quickly! I can't believe that my Christmas break is pretty much halfway over. It feels like an absolute whirlwind, most of which I can't even remember.
I worked a few days, which is good and necessary since after Christmas and paying January rent, we'll be pretty much broke. We've tried to be as frugal as possible, but any little extra expense on our budget has the potential of breaking the bank, and there are many extra little expenses at this time of the year. The Lord has miraculously provided the needed cash multiple times over the past few months, and this month granted Jesse a temp-job to work over his break; he's packing coffee ten hours a day for most of the break. Although it's hard work and he needs a rest as much as I do, he says it feels good to be "bringing home the bacon" for the first time since last July. It's a hard balance to be the one bringing home the paycheck as the woman, even though he's "working" full time as a student teacher. We're both looking forward to the day (very soon now!) that he'll be earning money doing the thing he's been paying to do for about four months.

This Christmas has been the Year of the Shepherds for me. Following me all season has been the awareness that I, like the shepherds, am a totally ordinary (or: unworthy, despised, common, dirty, smelly, cold, poor, humble) person who has been chosen by God to receive the revelation of the birth of the true Christ - the good news of great joy. The Gospel. And, just like the shepherds, I (unworthy, despised, common, dirty, smelly, cold, poor, humble) am invited - nay, compelled - to worship at the feet of the most glorious and perfect creature the world had seen; God made into the soft and clean flesh of a child born in the most ordinary (unworthy, despised, common, dirty, smelly, cold, poor, humble) circumstances.

It sounds so Sunday-school, so simple, and I suppose it is, but this theme has moved with me through the last month, and now, as it draws near to the Day for which I have so long awaited, I seek to worship at the feet of one who made Himself nothing so that He could live the life I was supposed to lead, to become my sin and bear the punishment for the very person I was as a child of Adam (unworthy, despised, common, dirty, smelly, cold, poor, humble).

I am now a daughter of Christ Jesus our Lord, who is all-worthy, worshiped, extraordinary, all-clean and all-cleansing, fragrance of God, warm with love for His children, wealthy with the riches of heavenly treasures, and glorified next to His Father in heaven. Hallelujah!

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