Christmas Reflections

The most momentous point in history was a time of great joy and great sorrow - a great paradox, as most of life tends to be.

An angel told Mary she had found favor with God and would give birth to a son, and "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High" (Luke 1:31-32).  But being favored by God doesn't mean being favored by people, and her "disgrace" nearly made Joseph divorce her till an angel intervened (Matthew 1:18-25) and it most certainly ostracized her from her own community.

The Savior of the world came as an infant, small and weak and dependent.  But that baby became a child, and "the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him" (Luke 2:40), and that child would eventually "save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21).

The shepherds witnessed a heavenly host of angels who sang, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests" (Luke 2:13-14).  But tidings of peace did not last long in Bethlehem, as Herod "gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under" which led to "weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they are no more" (Matthew 2:16-18).

Mary, the mother of Jesus, had a front-row seat to all of these paradoxes.  She was a woman in favor at the same time she was a woman in dishonor.  She placed her newborn in a manger at the same time she knew the Lord would give Him the throne of His father David.  She rejoiced in the coming of her son at the same time her neighbors wept over the loss of their sons because He came.

So much joy, so much sorrow, so much paradox.  No wonder "Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart" (Luke 2:19).

I can scarcely imagine how much Mary had to absorb and process within the span of a few years.  That's a lot to take in, a lot to treasure and ponder.  This year, the way I've attempted to reflect on the Christmas story is to ponder the heart of the mother of Jesus from my own mother's perspective.  Our son Asa is still an infant and he is small (relatively), and utterly dependent on us.  His head bobbles, his mouth drools and his hands are barely able to grasp onto things.  And he is marvelous in our eyes.  It is incredible to consider that this is how our Savior came.  The Wonderful Counselor drank his mother's milk, the Mighty God couldn't hold his own head up, the Everlasting Father drooled down his shirt, and the Prince of Peace didn't sleep through the night.  But oh, what good news!  The answer to the plight of the world came in the form of a helpless babe, and an angel declared this to be good news that would bring great joy to the world.

As our son continues to tug our hearts everyday, we can testify that if ever there was a sign of hope for the world, it is in the beauty and innocence of a newborn, and if ever there was a proclamation of joy, it is in the smile of a baby.  I am treasuring and pondering this as I'm sure Mary did when her son Jesus was born.  This is what Immanuel looks like, to have God with us:

And so I sing with Mary,

"My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior." 

(Luke 1:46-47)

From Our House to Yours

Last week we visited my sister's church to see our nieces and nephew in their annual Christmas program.  I noticed a lovely Christmas tree and thought to myself, "We should get a family photo on this rarest of days in which we aren't all dressed in sweats and T-shirts!"  This was the result:

We did actually come away with one decent photo, but this is my favorite.  It tells a truer story than the Christmas card photo.  So Merry Christmas, from our house to yours!

Three Months Young

Three months in and this boy has proven to be a mostly happy and content moose baby.  He's huge and hefty, wearing 9 month clothes and weighing around 17 pounds.  He's usually intrigued by the constant hubbub around him and loves any attention he can get.  Asa smiles easily and drools like a drooly monster.  Oh, how we love this boy!

The Angry Fireman

A recent trip to the Flint Children's Museum was full of fun and frolics.  These boys pretended to be dinosaurs, mailmen, chefs, helicopter pilots, and firemen.  Every imagining was happy...except for this angry fireman.

But don't worry.  He was countered by this delightful and dutiful fireman who insisted on putting out the fire with gasoline.

As you can see, we're raising our children to be conscientious citizens who contribute to society with joy!

Christmas Tree

We found ourselves a free Christmas tree this year, and all it required was walking through the pasture at my parents' house and dodging horse poop!  We found a great tree and only one kid walked away with manure on his boots.  Success!

First things first: apples for the horse.  We hadn't seen Breaker since being in Michigan and the boys were quite excited to share some goodies with him.

Next up: searching for a tree.  My dad has pine trees planted around the property and we compared a few before picking one.  The kids tagged along and Caleb and I liked the same tree.  It was a beauty and Kai helped my dad saw it down.

Lastly: decorating!  The boys were giddy about the lights.  Kai kept saying, "They're on!  They're on!"  Caleb remarked, "What a beautiful tree!"  Indeed :)  Caleb also loved playing with the ornaments.  His current favorites are the wolf and the starfish.

Each year we get a new ornament from our travels.  Despite traveling more this year than any other so far, we didn't remember to look for an ornament until our very last trip, which happened to be after Asa was born and happened to be during missions training in Colorado where we visited the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and fed the giraffes.  So that's where we found our ornament this year.  And it will always remind us of this time in our life when we were preparing for missions with three little boys.

So we've got a beautiful Christmas tree at the lakehouse and we're relishing it.  We're not sure what Christmas will be like in Kenya next year but it probably won't include a freshly cut pine tree with our own ornaments from the past ten years.  So we're cherishing this tree this year.

And, as always, we're cherishing these treasures too :)  Three moose babies in moose pajamas, celebrating Christmas time!

Blurry in Black & White

I took a bunch of photos of Asa the other day, but most of them are blurry.  The lighting was terrible and his bobble-head made it difficult to keep the lens focused for up-close shots.  But I took a bunch of photos anyway because he was content and smiley and I couldn't resist!  I wasn't happy with the results but I turned a few into black & white which made them palatable.  These two are my favorite.

I couldn't resist taking photos even though the conditions were ripe for failure because that face catches my heart every time, even if it turns out blurry!