What would Christmas be without children?  I am often amazed, softened and challenged by thoughts that go through their minds and out of their mouths.

Micah’s dad, Justin (or Gus…he goes by both), shared about a conversation with Micah (4) that took place earlier this week during a family devotional.   Justin shared:

 We were discussing the birth of Jesus – naturally – and I asked him, “Buddy, you know how Jesus is a king?”  He nodded. 

I continued, “Well most kings in Jesus’ time were born in big castles and they had real beds and lots of people helping them when they were born.” 

He nodded again and I said, “Well, if God can do anything – which he can – why wouldn’t he have made it so his son was born in a big castle like other kings instead of in a barn with animals and without even a bed?”

Micah thought about it for half a second and then he said, “Well castles are far away from the people and Jesus needed to be down near the people so he could see them and so he could know who he needed to rescue because that is why he was born, to rescue people”

As I wrapped gifts in the kitchen this evening I kept this  in my heart as I listened to Christmas carols. Two of my favorites played.  One, entitled “Welcome to Our World,” expresses well Micah’s observations.

I pondered what it must have felt like for Jesus to leave heaven’s perfection and arrive in a (too often) war-torn, hate filled, and messed up world.  Consider these lyrics:

Welcome to Our World, by Chris Rice:

Tears are falling, hearts are breaking
How we need to hear from god
You’ve been promised, we’ve been waiting
Welcome holy child
Welcome holy child

Hope that you don’t mind our manger
How I wish we would have known
But long awaited holy stranger
Make yourself at home
Please make yourself at home
Bring your peace into our violence
Bid our hungry souls be filled
World now breaking heaven’s silence
Welcome to our world
Welcome to our world

Fragile finger sent to heal us
Tender brow prepared for thorn
Tiny heart whose blood will save us
Unto us is born
Unto us is born
So wrap our injured flesh around you
Breathe our air and walk our sod
Rob our sin and make us holy
Perfect son of God
Perfect son of God
Welcome to our world

The next song brought tears to my eyes—“O Holy Night” written by Adolphe Adams.

O holy night, the stars are brightly shining
It is the night of our dear Savior’s birth
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
‘Til He appeared and the soul felt its worth

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn’
Fall on your knees, O hear the angels’ voices
O night divine, O night when Christ was born

Because Jesus was willing to come and live among the people, he knows us—he know me.

Because he came…

Our souls can finally feel their worth.  They are worth his birth and his death. Amazing.

What a thrill of hope—and reason to celebrate this brings.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas.

May we “fall on our knees” in wonder and gratitude.

Forty years ago today I had just completed my last college final.  It had been a crazy time…finishing school, packing my life belongings in a few boxes and planning our wedding while my fiancé lived in another state.  He had begun a job as a campus minister five months prior. We dated in the days before computers and in the time when phone calls from state to state cost more than we had–so we relied on near-daily old fashioned letter writing (with real pen and paper and stamps.)  And yes, I still have the letters we wrote.

On the morning of this day forty years ago, our wedding day, I finished a few last minute errands with friends while Wyndham played football with his buddies from church.  That afternoon, we became husband and wife. 

I am thrilled to celebrate forty years with such an amazing man.  In honor of this day I wrote out forty reasons why I fell in love with my husband…and forty reasons why I’m even more in love with him forty years later. 

When I think of some of the reasons why I fell in love with my husband I am overwhelmed with gratitude to God, and to my husband.   It took me all of five minutes to list forty things. Here is a sampling:

1. He treated me as someone significant.
2. The guys on his dorm floor (where he was an RA) respected him.
3. He thought for himself, but listened to others as well.
4. He had an arm that could throw a football a long way-accurately.
5. When we were just friends, and he hurt my feelings one day…he walked 30 minutes across campus to my dorm lobby and called me to come down so he could apologize. I think that is the moment I began to fall in love with him.
6. He had many deep friendships. His friends knew he sincerely cared.
7. He had deep convictions.
8. He was an excellent thinker and very wise.
9. He treated me with absolute purity.
10. I walked past his car (old, old Chevrolet) one day and he didn’t see me. No one was around.  He was inside, praying passionately.  I kept walking…not wanting to interrupt. That scene was stamped in my mind. I could see the “realness” of his communication with God.

I could go on and on.  Forty years later, those reasons are still there….but the depth of that first love has exponentially grown.  We have experienced so much life together as we have raised our family, traveled to the poorest parts of the earth, seen amazing wonders of God’s creation, built treasured friendships, loved and served in the church, seen lives changed, prayed and prayed—often with tears, laughed deeply, cried, stood at bedsides of loved ones as they breathed their last breath, held each other’s hands, walked dogs, rejoiced in weddings and births, played with grandchildren,….all the while building  precious memories. 

Unequivocally, God is the reason…the only reason we have been able to experience this wonderful love—as he continually shows us what love means.

Today I am especially thankful for the gift of forty years of marriage to my best friend and companion—a man full of integrity.  I relate to the chorus lyrics of an old hymn:

It gets sweeter as the days go by

It gets sweeter as the days go by

It gets sweeter as the moments fly

His love is richer, deeper, fuller, sweeter

Sweeter, sweeter, sweeter as the days go by

First love is special—but continual, seasoned love is even sweeter.