weekends are for coming in out of the cold

May all your weekend wanderings, kind friends, draw you closer

to the Heat of His Heart...


All's grace,

Photos: Hope coming in from the cold...
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The Best Things to Make This Christmas

Care to know the best things to make this Christmas? Please read me over at Christmas Change today...

Photos: Making here
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3 Simple Practices for a Peaceful Advent

The Christ Child in the manger, He takes on the garment of fragile flesh to release us from being beasts of burden.

I think of this often, when I feel Christmas as a weight, burden that I'm sagging under for weeks. Whenever Christmas begins to burden, it's a sign that I've taken on something of the world and not of Christ.

Christmas comes to us like the Cross -- asking nothing of us but embrace. So I lay down the expectations and the efforts, the perfectionism and performance, and I simply wait for His coming. His blood does all the work. He shed it to release us from burden -- so we embrace a peaceful Advent...

Our Three Simple Practices for a Peaceful Advent

1. Light the Fire

When night falls early and the snow lies late, we light candles, we light the fire, we light hearts, with the flickering flame.

The season of Advent is about waiting and watching for the coming Light. A candle, a match -- simple, inexpensive, unobtrusive -- and we turn out the lights on the day's creative mess and we light a light to see the light that dawns on those living in the land of the shadow of death.

Each night of Advent, we light the fire and answer Isaiah's invitation to Come Behold, He who Comes.

2. Gather for Warmth

In a circle, in a halo of light, in a moment of quiet, we gather together around the lit flame, around the hearth, and the bodies press close and our breathing slows and we who are cold are kindled.

Even if only for a handful of moments, to light the fire, the candles, and collect each other close, like shepherds out on the hills gathered together in community, keeping watch over the flock by night. The warmth is in the gathering, in the waiting together.

3. Step into the Light

The humble wick lit and the day's wanderers simply gathered close on laps and rocking chairs and pillows, we step into the Light -- the Light of a few verses of Scripture; the Light of a few notes of song; the Light of few words of prayer. Choose one; choose all. Simply keep it simple: peaceful and without burden.

Before bed, before the flame, before each other, we step into the Coming Light.

• It may be a Scripture from our Glorious Coming: Jesse Tree readings, a few words of reflection, and the hanging of an ornament.

• It might simply be a child slipping a hand into one of Grandma Voskamp's knitted socks of the stocking advent calendar, pulling out one of the Advent Bible verses for the day, another child offering some thoughts, then a Christmas carol sung together.

• It might be a favorite Christmas storybook or picture book read aloud, toes snuggled under blankets and the shadows kept at bay with the dancing eyes.

Some nights, it might be all that and more -- hot chocolate and popcorn and a sing-song -- and some nights it might be but a moment and heads simply bowed in prayer. But each evening of Advent, to light the fire, to gather together for soul warmth, to step into His Light. That's all.

No ingredients, recipe, paint, glue gun, glitter, decorations, ribbon or scissors (!!) required -- just a simple candle, a hand to hold, a heart seeking its true Home.


For Christmas isn't the making of a product; Christmas is the meeting of a Person.

Each evening of Advent -- in candle light, in love's light, in Jesus Light -- we peacefully rest, for we have no Christmas to make or buy. We have only a Christmas to find.

And we simply -- joyfully -- find Christmas in Christ.

Photos: Simply embracing here... (candles in Giving Thanks glass found here)
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What Advent is Really All About

When the steel of the heavy staple wouldn’t give way from the grain of the wood, the blade of the prying scissors slipped. The scissors speared through the layers of the soft flesh.

Gushing red pulsed across the room, a fount.

I heaved and held the breath in the lungs, held the punctured hand with the good, held it and held on. A child ran, ran to the barn for him who has always come.

On the drive to the emergency room, Farmer Husband spoke the words I had been groping for, me lying down, nauseated by the sheet-whitening scarlet running down my arms.

He laid his hand on my leg, turned his eyes a moment from the road, spoke it softly, a gentle acceptance.

“Oh, we deck the halls… but yes. Advent is really all about blood.”

I smile weakly. He does too.

“A bit of an appalling visual….” I squeeze the clenched rag tighter.

“It’s like those words I just read that Jesus spoke before Pilate.” I murmur Jesus words....

“… ‘for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world…’ ”

I had had visions of swags of cranberry and popcorn, evergreen garlands draped from the mantle, a nativity scene swaddled in, yes, that stubborn, stapled-to-wood burlap bag.

A Better-Homes-and-Gardens Christmas with some Martha Stewart crafts and Focus on the Family Advent readings. A beautiful Christmas.











But is that true beauty?

True Beauty bears wounds. True Beauty is broken for its Beloved. True Beauty may have no beauty or majesty to attract us, nothing in its appearance that we should desire.

True Beauty may be despised and rejected by men.

What’s seeping out of the cloth, trickling down my arm, it looks ugly. It looks the antithesis of Christmas. But neither does this read like a Christmas text, words spoken before the shearers and the spikes:

‘for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world…’ ~Jn. 18:37


What if Christmas focused on Christ’s very own words regarding His birth?


That He was born for a reason, came into the world for a cause and it has to do with a tree, one decorated with Love, wrapped in Sacrifice, strung up with the Light of Word, nailed through with Grace.

That Advent is all about blood and the lamb in the manger bleating not a sound as He is sacrificed on the Tree.


In ER, I lie in a hospital bed and the nurse tenderly wipes away the blood, and I smile feebly knowing what I won't wipe from my Christmas. Scarlet stains these Advent days of waiting through with the True Beauty. And when the children light the first Advent candle, waiting for Him to come to the barn, Him who has come, always comes, and will come again, I sit with them.

I cradle my stitched and bruised hand like a babe, the hand that will scar.

The wound leaks a singular tear down my skin. I don't wipe it away.








My humblest gratitude for your kind prayers and thoughtful words for our family this week as I heal from my embarrassing, painful bungling. Attempts at creativity might best be left to wonders like Kimba and Melissa. ~weak smile, blush~ I think I'll stick to fumbling around with a keyboard and a shutter. (Yet so nice to have made gift giving easy for my sweet little sister this year. ~smile, wink~). I'm unspeakably thankful for the vivid ways God spoke to us this Advent.

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Every Wednesday, we Walk with Him, posting a spiritual practice that draws us nearer to His heart.
To read the entire series of spiritual practices

Next Week: As next week embarks us on this reflective season of Christmas, consider sharing in community Christmas: How We Celebrate. We look forward to your creative voice, ideas, thoughts!


Today, if you'd like to share with community Christmas: A Season of Seeking Christ... just quietly slip in the direct URL to your exact post..... If you join us, might we humbly ask that you please help us find one another other by sharing the community's graphic within your post.

Photos:
~sock Advent calendar, all socks that (Mom)Grandma Voskamp knitted for us over the years,
~Oldest checking each bulb before stringing the tree,
~the lighting of the first Advent candle
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a little mishap

Ann's sister

has hacked into her blog

to let you all know of a little mishap involving

Ann

a large pair of scissors

a stubborn staple

an old burlap bag

and a trip to the ER

She's mostly fine

and will be back soon

(I'm thinking I'll be buying her a staple remover for Christmas...)

thankful for grace

~Molly

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weekend wanderings: Christmas preparing

As ornaments hang gracefully in the woods.... we prepare too....

What You Really Want for Christmas -- Want to open your Present Early? You know you want to. Go ahead!

Simplify the Holidays
A complete booklet to guide through the holidays -- an extremely thoughtful, useful resource to explore how each family would best like to celebrate His coming. Includes some creative gift-giving ideas.... 'Does your usual celebration focus on those aspects of the holiday that you feel are most important?'

Celebrating Christmas: a tremendous, delightful list of activities and ideas, to give the gift of experience and time together...

Simple Steps to Change
'Thoughtful, practical steps so that you can slowly grow in your ChristmasChange giving.'


Family Devotions: Three Nights that Could Change the World
'The hope is that young people will understand that Christmas is about Christ and commit themselves to a celebration of Christmas which reflects this.'

Session 1: ' Take a risk... Mary, the unwed mother of Jesus, went against the grain.'

Session 2: ' The best gifts come in no packages. The Christmas story is all about flipping the system on its lid.'

Session 3: ' Image is everything? Be a radical this Christmas.'

Photo: ornaments hanging in the woods
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Faith For Those In The Field

Ann?" He calls from the back door. "Can you can grab me The Word? On the stick?”

His voice finds me at the table with books and children and pencils.

From the window, I can see the tractor idling in the lane, the cap of it’s muffler bobbing. He's headed to the field.



“You left it in your cubby drawer?” I leave Kai to wrestle out the rest of his spelling, find the little BibleStick, the headphones, tucked in the drawer amongst his papers.

“You can hear it in the tractor okay?”

He’s leaning in the mudroom door and I lay God’s truth into his hand, an audio Bible the size of a stick of gum.

“Clear as a bell.” He winks. “I’ll just get it set up before we get rolling... and I’ll listen all through the night.”

“I listened through the whole of the Gospels yesterday.” He checks the battery. "We're good to go!"

Thumbs up and he's out the door.





I lean up against the door, watch him go.

There are things worth taking to the field. There is a Friend who keeps the night hours.

There are Words and they are very God's and we hunger after them more than any food harvested from the fields.






And I turn back to the table, thinking of all those fields ripe for the harvest.

Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. :: Jn. 4:35


"Faith comes from hearing the message." :: Ro.10:17

Thinking about troops serving in fields far from home this holiday season?

Prayerfully consider joining 'Faith Comes from Hearing' to give the gift of God's Word to troops serving in fields around the world.

This includes a Military Bible MemoryStick
*pre-loaded with the entire New Testament,
*rugged enough for tough weather conditions
*for use in low-light situations,
*and sized to easily fit into uniform pockets,

plus an MP3 disc of the entire New Testament along with response card for service members to have New Testaments and KIDZ Bibles sent to their families.


For deeply moving testimonies from troops who've been changed by the hearing of God's Word with the Bible MemoryStick, read here


'Faith Comes From Hearing is also sending the most fascinating piece of technology throughout Africa with the Proclaimer. Tremendous!

To consider the happy privilege sending a Proclaimer (with the entire audio New Testament and its own solar recharging battery) to any village where people can't read God's Word....

(And if you're considering a personal Bible Stick, each includes:

• 40 Day Plan: Listen just 28 minutes a day
• Simple, easy-to-use Audio New Testament
• Powered by one AAA battery)

For further consideration & a free download of the New Testament

Photo: the Word on the BibleStick going to the field here, military photo that brought tears via tumblr (HT: @To Think )
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