One of my best friends from childhood is having a baby...due yesterday. We are really praying that this little boy decides to show up very, very soon. Like today. Not tomorrow though...maybe the day after Christmas. It's hard to believe, I don't feel old enough for her to be having a baby;-) So, in her 9 month pregnant state, sleep is not really coming all that easy. This is a perfect recipe for hilarity to ensue...in the form of baking...a lot of baking....till like 3 in the morning. Oh, yes, yes we did. She found this "really good recipe for chocolate no bake oatmeal cookies" that she just had to make. And thumb print cookies and chocolate dipped pretzels and sugar cookies and peppermint cheese cake bars. Oh, did I mention that we didn't start until 9 at night? And I made dinner for her and her mom and dad somewhere in the midst of all this baking and general chaotic goings on? I did. Boy, it was fun! I thrive in situations like that:-) Comes with growing up in a chaotic, loud, house where there were always about 50 things going on at once.
So, there we are, she's bumping into all the cabinets with her big tummy and I'm trying not to bump into her and baby and we are laughing so hard that we can hardly breath. Like the belly laughter that only comes at 1 in the morning, when every single thing you do is absolutely hilarious! Plus, nothing in any of the first few batches of cookies would go right. I mean, the oddest, most bizarre things were happening....and I thought baking at high altitude was hard. Well, this shouldn't have been difficult, but it was the nature of the night...and us...and the time. Yes. Then, baby wakes up and decides to do somersaults and flips in the middle of all the calamity happening in the kitchen. Looked like she had an alien in her belly. Ha! It really wasn't funny...well, yes it was.
And those chocolate oatmeal cookies. All I have to say about them is that I'm pretty sure you could've used them as hockey pucks. Seriously. Her dad almost broke a tooth on them and promptly said, in a very sweet and serious voice, "Um, honey? I don't think these are going to work...you should definitely give them away as Christmas gifts." Ha! She was highly disappointed in how they turned out, partly because I think she started craving them as she was making them:-D That would be a disappointment. Everything else turned out after the second or third batch, however. Saddest part? Most of them were pre-made, you know, the kind you can buy and just stick in the oven. Yeah. And I bake almost everyday from scratch at home!!! I don't know what was wrong with me. I'm blaming it on the very "large" time change;-)
Ah, but now it's Christmas Eve day and it's beautiful here in sunny South Carolina. Tomorrow is Christmas and it's hard to believe it came so quickly. I am not thinking about the gifts or even Christmas itself, however, but Jesus. Jesus who is so faithful and wonderful and who never leaves me. Who wipes away my every tear, who whispers, " My love, I've never and will never leave your side. I have loved you all your life. You are not alone for I am here." This is what I'm thinking about, what I'm hearing Him say to me today. And once again, I will never be the same, for it's the sweetest voice that calls to me.
This is what I'm thinking about on this day before Christmas. That even though it is not technically Jesus' birthday tomorrow, what a gift He was and is to me today and every day I draw breath. I could not live without knowing Him...or, I suppose I could, but it could not compare with this life of loving and being loved by Him. I am humbled and amazed when I truly begin to think about what a merciful, loving God we have, who gave His only son to me..to you. I don't care when His birthday actually was, I want to drop to my face before my God and cry out, "Thank you, thank you, thank you! I am not worthy, so thank you!" This is the gift I never have nor never will deserve, no matter when He was really born. That is trivial next to knowing and having a relationship with Him. Today, I am convicted to press into my Jesus all the more, because He was given to me by my Father who loved Him more than life itself...and loved me enough to freely send His precious Son as a baby. A baby who would grow to be the man who would hang on that cross for me.
Father, thank you for Jesus, though I'll never do anything to deserve Him. Thank you for His blood that covers me and makes a way for me to know the fulness of who You are. Thank you for the gift He was and is every single day. Thank you for life itself and for the chance to live it with You to the fullest extent. May I never, never forget or let what You did for me grow dim. Let it blaze before my eyes like the star that the wise men followed so long ago...
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