On Sunday we had our College and Career Christmas party. We met after church and went caroling at the sr living facility where Jason's grandma lives. She was very proud to have her grandson's church group come in to sing! It was a lot of fun as the older folks really enjoyed and appreciated us coming in. After we sang, we went over to our pastor's house and spent the afternoon watching the end of the Vikings game, eating pizza and desserts, playing Buzz Word, and Empire.
This is just the start of the Christmas parties!! We have one we are hosting at our house this Thursday and then we leave on the 22nd for Christmas in Montana.
Once again though, I want to end this post with the true meaning of Christmas and what we need to remember in the midst of parties and opening gifts and traveling and all the prep work that goes on in Dec. God has given us a wonderful way to celebrate His Son's birth and an annual event that points us to His Son. Yet I find that sometimes the real Christmas meaning is hard to find in the crazy busy schedules we keep. I love how my family always reads the Christmas story out of Luke before we open gifts. A story we all know so well, but it helps us meditate on the birth of our Savior.
I found two blogs that have postings about Christmas and I want to share them with you! I'll post them below as their wording is much better than my summary of the articles could ever be.
On Cripplegate, Nathan Busenitz (who works at Grace Church in LA) tells us what we can learn from the Christmas Carols we sing. Read the blog and really listen to the songs the next time you sing them: http://thecripplegate.com/the-gospel-according-to-christmas-carols/
Then on Girltalk, they talk about how happiness is found in Christ, not in the holiday itself. It's geared towards people who have a hard time finding happiness at Christmas, but I think it's very helpful to anyone! I like how they talk about how we need to intentionally seek our Savior during the Christmas season, which is what I was trying to allude to earlier. http://www.girltalkhome.com/blog/five-habits-for-holiday-happiness
I want to end this post how Nathan Busenitz ended his by giving the words to the second verse of Angels From The Realms Of Glory.
Sinners, wrung with true repentance,
Doomed for guilt to endless pains,
Justice now revokes the sentence,
Mercy calls you; break your chains.
Come and worship, come and worship,
Worship Christ, the newborn King.