Generosity Beyond Measure

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Imagine an edict has gone out from Heaven, putting humankind in charge of determining who is going to receive eternal life. How do you think people would go about it?

For a prize so great to be given out, people might hold a contest of some kind, like a beauty pageant or a football game, a singing competition or tennis match. People would have to prove they were the best at something, wouldn't they? There would surely be forms to fill out . . . lots and lots of forms and disclaimers and legal mumbo jumbo--just to make sure it was all handled fairly of course.

Or maybe the powers that be would decide to create a difficult quest of some kind and only the people who successfully completed the quest would qualify for eternal life, yeah, that's probably how they'd do it. Imagine the rules that would have to be followed and the entry fees that would have to be paid. I'm guessing there would be major hoops to be jumped through and hurdles to be cleared for anyone who fancied a chance at eternal life, if it were even possible. I mean in the world of humanity, nothing comes for free, and certainly nothing of any value comes without a high price tag!

Thankfully, people don't determine the distribution of eternal life, God does. Eternal life for finite, broken, little old us, was God's idea. He could have done anything He wanted to do and with limitless possibilities open to Him, He chose to send His only Son to be born as a baby, grow up as one of us, and ultimately to die in our place to pay our sin debt in full. This is what Jesus said about God's plan for giving away eternal life:

"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life." John 5:24 NIV

Are you as incredulous and amazed as I am at the incomprehensible generosity of God. Whoever BELIEVES!! Not whoever is beautiful enough, not whoever is strongest, fastest or bravest, not the people with the deepest pockets, not even the ones who could jump over all the hurdles or fill out the forms without making any mistakes, no . . . Jesus said,

WHOEVER BELIEVES!

It's so simple, it's beyond profound:

The gift whose worth cannot be measured
given freely to people who can never measure up!!

THAT is Christmas.
THAT is the Gift.
THAT is the Generosity of God.

As we approach these last days leading up to Christmas and we anticipate the fun of giving gifts as generous as we are able to give to our loved ones, I am praying that we will experience and share the knowledge of God's great big magnanimous soul as never before, and that we will each receive His gift of eternal life to its fullest measure.

From the Friday Family to you and yours,
we wish you a Merry Christmas filled with His incomparable joy!

All He Ever Wanted

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"'Dear Santa Claus,' it began. 'You know I have never written. I could never think of anything I needed or wanted for Christmas. But this year I had a different idea. What do you wish for Christmas Santa? You always answer children's wishes, but what about your own? Isn't there one thing in the world that you wish for but do not have? If you will post a letter back to me, I will do all that I can to bring your dream to life. Respectfully, Your friend, Christopher C.'"

In Brittany Ryan's enchanting novel, The Legend of Holly Claus, this child's letter set in motion an amazing adventure of love and sacrifice . . . and redemption.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What do you want for Christmas?" It's a familiar question this time of year. Lots of you are probably way ahead of me and have your shopping done already. Whether you're wrapping the presents you've bought, or still wracking your brain to find that certain something for that special someone, when the gift is prompted by love, the giver always wants to know what gift will delight the loved one's heart. We don't want to give ordinary, no-imagination gifts that could have been From: Anyone, To: Anyone. We don't want to give the kind of gift you take to those generic gift exchanges where you don't know who will pick your package, so you just get something anyone might like.

Two years ago we got to give a gift to She-So-Sweet that took her completely by surprise. Her old violin was in a bad way and while she desperately needed a new one, she knew money was tight, so she only asked for a new case. On Christmas morning, when she opened her big box and saw the new case, she was thrilled! Then, we had the fun of seeing her surprise turn to shock and watching her heart melt right before our eyes as she looked inside and realized there was a new violin to fill up her new case! It was a family moment we will always remember!!

There is just nothing like knowing that our gift has found its mark in conveying our love to someone in a way that was personally picked out just for them. In all our hunting for those just-right presents for the people we love, I wonder how often we remember to ask Jesus, "What do YOU want for Christmas?" After all, it is HIS birthday. Is it possible that if we ask, we too can embark on an amazing adventure of love, and sacrifice and redemption?

What would we do if He told us exactly what He wants for Christmas? Would we stop at anything to find it, get it, wrap it up, put a bow on top and wait breathlessly for Him to open it up on Christmas morning?

There is only one place in all of Scripture where Jesus actually expresses His personal desire to His Father and says the words, "I want."

"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them." John 17:24-26 NIV

Stop.

Go back and read that again.

Did you let that sink in?

Did you hear what He said?

What Jesus wants for this Christmas, and for every Christmas and for every day forever and ever is . . . US!!!

He wants us to be with Him, where He is.

He wants to have the fun of showing us His glory.

He wants to share His Father's love with us and wants us for His dwelling place.

Jesus, how can it be that when You could ask for anything, You ask for me? I am undone at the thought of You asking Your Father to give me to You. How can I be on your wish list at all, never mind in the top spot? How could I ever refuse to be treasured by You? I couldn't!! I wouldn't!! I can only stand in amazed surrender and accept Your inexplicable love. I want to be with You where You are, both here during my time on earth and someday in Your home in heaven. I want to see Your glory as You show it to me! And yes, I will daily submit to being Your dwelling place overflowing with Your Father's love.

We are all He ever wanted!!! The gift He asked His Father for, feels more like a gift He gives to us, but isn't that just like Jesus?!!

Won't you join me in giving Him what He wants for Christmas?
You can even put a bow on top, if you like!

Incarnation, Then and Now

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There is something about Christmas that flat-out refuses to be simple. It just will come with cramped quarters, groans and struggle, hard work and extreme inconvenience--Mary knew all about it, didn't she? Her life, so beautifully planned, suddenly and monumentally interrupted by none other than God Almighty! The angel He sent, Gabriel, told Mary she was favored among all women, and had been chosen to bear God's only Son. Her still innocent child's heart was so trusting, so willing to accept the honor and the profound responsibility of parenting the great I AM. Her faith astounds.

"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered.
"May it be to me as you have said."
Luke 1:38 NIV

As if she and Joseph didn't have enough to deal with, what with trying to explain the baby before the wedding and all, suddenly Caesar Augustus had his brilliant idea to call for a census. Not only that, but they had to travel all the way from Nazareth to Bethlehem right at the time of her due date! Eighty miles on the back of a donkey when you're that far along can't be easy. This trip, this complication in their lives couldn't have come at a worse time!!

What was it about Christmas? Why did the Incarnation have to arrive with such upheaval?

Why does it still?

The particulars of my Christmas this year are worlds away from Mary's, and I don't pretend to know even an inkling of what she endured, but her faith and her example can speak to me in my experience today. While much more ordinary, my strains and inconveniences during the weeks leading up to what should be a joyous season echo many of the struggles and question marks she must have grappled with.

Right before Thanksgiving my life was unexpectedly (and gladly) interrupted by the great joy and honor of being asked to take my daughter and some other girls from her youth group to a conference for teenage girls. I hadn't planned on it, hadn't known it was coming, but what a great opportunity!! What a blessing!! After a wonderful time of touching heaven and letting heaven touch us with how much God loves us as His daughters, we came home on a mountain-top high. Two days later I had what would develop into pneumonia that made me miss Thanksgiving with my family. After antibiotics, another infection and a second round of antibiotics, I'm not sick anymore, but the nagging cough seems reluctant to leave completely--it makes me weary. Hard on the heels of being so sick, I was called by the Census Bureau and was offered a job in our local Census office--I started work two days later, last Thursday. What a whirlwind!! All this when Christmas is fast approaching, I'm supposed to be registering to go back to school for the spring semester, AND my kids will be out of school for three weeks and I won't get to be there. I have been a stay-at-home-mom for 18 years, and this is a hard pill to swallow, no matter how much of an answer to prayer it is for our finances, no matter how willing I am to do whatever it takes to help care for my family. Groans, straining, hard work and extreme inconvenience--yes, Mary would know how I've been feeling. It's been a little bit hard to get as excited about Christmas this year as I usually do.

Saturday morning, in the middle of all my feelings of upheaval and claustrophobic demands and limitations, I had promised my kids (now 18 and 13) that we would decorate the tree together and surprise My Tony with it when he got home from his meetings that afternoon. I had promised, but I wasn't feeling it . . . AT ALL!! I was fighting with myself, knowing I would ruin the whole day if I didn't get my attitude right, but all I could think about was all I had to do and how little time I had and . . . and . . . AND . . . Finally I did get into the groove and with the kids' great help we got the decorating done and had a great time together. A great time together until . . . My Tony walked in and I realized I didn't have dinner ready, the after-decorating cleanup hadn't begun, I looked a mess, there were dirty dishes in the sink and I just crumbled. In that moment all I could see was that my big surprise must have seemed more like a big nightmare when he walked in the door.

It felt like a disaster.

But just before I could completely lose it, incarnation happened. Jesus put on flesh in my very own house. First She-So-Sweet looked intently into my brimming eyes, knowing me so well, and reminded me of what we had learned at our conference, "Don't forget!! You're God's daughter!! He loves you!" Then Drummer-Boy grabbed me by the shoulders and said, "You're a good mama!! We love you so much!!" While they were putting the scattered pieces of me back together, My Tony put aside the chaos in the house and started dinner so we could concentrate on finishing what we'd started. Through each of them, I saw Jesus and Christmas and incarnation in the midst of my upheaval.

I don't really know why Christmas seems to know no other way but to come in the midst of and in spite of chaos, except that it mirrors what Jesus did when He came. Our entire existence on the best of days is chaos compared to what God intended. His deepest desire was to give us back what we lost, so He sent Jesus into our chaos to bring us into His incomprehensible peace. I pray that your Christmas season, no matter what circumstances surround it this year, will be filled with the sparkle of moments of dazzling incarnation that will fill you with great joy and the peace Jesus came so far to bring.

Tell me how Jesus is making His incarnation come alive for you this Christmas!!

Just This, Just Now

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Green grass, fresh, dewy, tender, brand new green grass grows outside the window--the kind my horse would have gone crazy for.

A backdrop for Christmas?

Groan . . .

I would so prefer a deep, powdery, soft-as-eider-down, foot-thick blanket of snow outside my window. I long for the kind of snow that comes floating down like big lazy feathers, silently, with no trace of wind. The kind of snow that makes quiet voices sound sweetly amplified . . . the kind that makes the air feel warmer, softer than you think it should . . . the kind you simply must go for a walk in, especially after dark, when it really isn't dark at all because the snow makes everything glow. Yes, that is what I would prefer.

But, it's awfully green outside my California window.

I've been in California a long time now--longer than both my snow-blessed homes combined. You'd think I'd be used to it by now, but still it's hard for me. There is a gap between what I would prefer and what I get.

Every year, once or twice we get a little snow on Mt. Diablo that usually lasts just until the sun gets high in the sky, and then it's gone--I look forward to it more than you can imagine. This year, to everyone's great surprise, the snow level dropped way down low, and it stayed on the mountain for several days. At first, all I could think about was how unfair it was that so many of my friends had snow right in their yards, and I felt like I was the only one whose house got no snow. Didn't God know how much I NEEDED some snow? Didn't He care that I felt left out, when I was the one who "deserved" it most? Can you hear me stamping my feet and see my lips poked out in a pout? I almost cheated myself out of enjoying the beauty of the white hills all around the valley, the beauty that lingered for days instead of hours, because I was stuck on not getting the snow the way I wanted it, stuck on the fact that time and circumstances didn't allow for me to go somewhere to play in it. Foolish girl!!

Fortunately I only ALMOST cheated myself.

Just in time, I got a hold of myself and did what I usually do, I did the thing that has allowed me to walk around in this California world, still so foreign to me, for more than 25 years without going crazy. When the green grass at Christmas is getting on my last nerve, I force myself, sometimes with clenched teeth, to look for the beauty in it.

This is a scene I wouldn't find in either of my other homes where I so loved the snow. I would never see the contrast of the bright-white snow and the ultra-green of the new grass springing out of rain-soaked hills. This is a beauty unique to this place, this moment in time, this gift from God. I could have missed it in longing for other places, other gifts and other blessings, living in the used-to-be's or the not-yet's. INSTEAD I choose to notice, appreciate, savor, and thank God for this, just this, just now.

This is a choice I have to make, but it doesn't always come easy--just ask my teeth.

At the moment, my family is and has for several years, been weathering a season where there are some real gaps between what we would prefer and what we are currently getting. It can be hard to feel contentment in the turmoil of real emotions, especially at Christmas when we have so many wishes and hopes and dreams of how we would like things to be for the people we love.

In the flurry of emotions, I can feel sorry for myself and my family. I can feel deprived, ignored, left out and disgruntled, OR I can choose to look, with clenched teeth if I have to, for the real, honest-to-goodness beauty in it all. I have to look around at this time, this place, these gifts from God with an eye for what is special about them. Nothing else will ever be exactly like this time, and I could cheat myself out of what is uniquely beautiful about it by wishing it away, or longing for other places, other gifts and other blessings, living in the used-to-be's or the not-yet's. INSTEAD, I choose to notice Jesus and the beauty of Him in the moments of this day, just this, just now.

"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever."
1 Chronicles 16:34 NIV

Do you ever get stuck wishing for used-to-be's or not-yet's?
How do you stay content when there are gaps between what you prefer and what you get?

Traditions and Tiny Obsessions

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Every year since My Tony and I got married, we have bought a new Christmas ornament . Most of them commemorate some event during the year (like 9/11), some family joke or shared experience that we want to remember. My favorite part of decorating (which I haven't even started yet) is putting the now large collection of ornaments on the tree.


Now, my kids will tell you, this wasn't always so much fun . . . FOR THEM. I used to have this THING. You know, a THING, a hangup, an obsession. I was a teeny bit crazed about the necessity (in my mind) to put the ornaments on the tree, one by one, in chronological order. To be fair (and I KNOW you want to be fair) I started this FROM THE BEGINNING when there was only one ornament, then two, then three, and so on. However, by the time my kids were 12 and 7 and each of them had personal ornaments too and the number had grown to more than 25 ornaments, my little ritual had outgrown itself.

It no longer served a good purpose.

It had become a burden.

I had. to let. it go.

Initially it wasn't easy for me, because I liked the sequence to be a walk down memory lane, IN ORDER. But as soon as I let go of my need to do things 'my way' everyone else was able to enjoy the process again. Maybe we didn't do them in order, but we still danced and skipped our way through the memories of each year's ornament and the fun was restored.

For so long I had confused the form of HOW we put the ornaments on the tree with the SUBSTANCE of the memory-sharing. When I finally realized that the form was actually hindering the substance, I could let it go. I am learning in other things to make myself stop and distinguish between the form and the substance. If the form doesn't serve the substance, the form is the thing to go.

Sometimes we have very strong ideas about how things SHOULD be done, and there's nothing wrong with traditions and rituals. In fact, they can be very important and a rich part of our family's experience together. We just have to be willing to notice and adjust if one of those traditions or rituals becomes more of a burden than a joy. Tradition for tradition's sake is empty--tradition that illustrates a beautiful timeless truth is priceless.

God Himself designed and gave traditions and rituals, feasts and festivals to His people as a way to remember and celebrate the milestones of their life with Him and to pass the stories of His care for them from generation to generation.

"This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD -a lasting ordinance." Exodus 12:14 NIV

These are good things! They ARE good things as long as the traditions are treated as vessels to carry truth forward and as long as the traditions don't become more important than the stories they tell. I pray that we all will cherish our old traditions and maybe make some new ones this Christmas and most of all that the traditions will only carry glitter off His glory.

Are there any traditions or tiny obsessions that might need to be adjusted in your family?
Do you have a story of a ritual you've changed and the difference it made to your family?
I'd love to hear your stories!

Deep Faith and Old Hymns

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I went to visit my dear friend Fran yesterday. Late in her 80's now, she lives with her son and his family and she is slowly slipping away. She doesn't really know me anymore, and she doesn't remember 30 seconds after I leave that I've been there, but I go as often as I can because she went so far out of her way so many times for me.

Fran, or "Franacious" as we lovingly called her "back in the day" was the librarian at the Bible college I attended. She started that library from the ground up and she painstakingly logged in every book, and spent countless hours lugging boxes and shifting shelves to put a proper library together for the Bible college students that had descended upon her church.

She was an excellent librarian, yes, but she was so much more--
She was a kind of surrogate grandmother to anyone who needed one.
She asked questions and listened like she really wanted to know . . . because she did.
She comforted all manner of homesickness, lovesickness, the common cold (she had been a nurse in an earlier career), and the bone-crushing fatigue of all-night study sessions--she would stay as long as anyone needed the books.
She fed anyone who was running a little short on cash.
She gave a place to stay when roommate issues were overwhelming.
She drove those of us without cars all over creation (if not for her and all the rides she gave me to the BART train station, My Tony and I might not have even gotten together).
She encouraged, reassured, helped, commiserated and loved so many so well.

We have stayed in touch ever since. Christmas cards, phone calls and the occasional visit after I moved away from San Jose where we met. She came to my wedding, which I'm convinced wouldn't have happened without her.

Last year I asked our worship team to go with me to the memory care facility where she lived then to sing hymns for her and they agreed to come. When we arrived, Fran was in a very blue mood and was reluctant to come out to the main room. With a little coaxing she finally shuffled in, head down, shoulders hunched, teary and sad.

I introduced her to my friends and we began to sing everyone's favorite hymns. Much to my surprise, Fran started singing right along, not even looking at the hymnal in front of her! Here was this woman who has trouble stringing one thought to the next and suddenly she was singing, loud and strong, sometimes going into harmony parts and doing hand motions she had learned as a little girl. We were all fighting back tears as we watched her literally unfold out of the huddled, inward shell she had been moments before and we saw the real Fran emerge, feisty, funny Franacious, by turns directing the singers and even joking with everyone and basking in the attention they all gave her.

What a transformation!! What a revelation!! It was as if the hymns we sang had flipped a switch to a part of her that was still whole and alive. We had a marvelous time that day with her and with the other residents who also were touched and blessed by those familiar old hymns, so rich with timeless truth. I have never visited since without singing a few hymns with her and the effect is dramatic to me every time. The moment I start singing Jesus Loves Me or Trust and Obey or Victory in Jesus, she comes back from that distant, disjointed, frustrating place her mind takes her and her blue eyes get clear and focused and Fran is Fran again, if only for a few minutes. Yesterday we sang Christmas carols together and I made her fluffy white teddy bear dance to the music--she was delighted!

I can see that it does her good, but it is such a blessing to me to see that for this sweet lady, whose deep faith has seen her through so much, the most real part of her, maybe the only part that is still intact is the part that rests in knowing "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so." It is not mere rote recall of words and music she learned long ago, but that those songs and the faith she placed in the truth they contain are breath and life to her.

Thank God for the hymns you know--they're stored in a very durable place in your brain and they are powerful medicine. If they can have that kind of effect on someone at Fran's age while her mind is deteriorating, imagine what they can do for us--SING, SING, SING!!

"Gray hair is a crown of splendor;
it is attained by a righteous life."
Proverbs 16:31 NIV

Is there an elderly person in your life who needs a good old-fashioned hymn sing?

Find the Perfect Gift

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Up and down . . .

round and round . . .

shoppers search and sift.

Hustle, hurry . . .

go, go, go . . .

find the perfect gift!


In all the scurrying activity of Christmas shopping, it's so easy to forget what it's all about. It's so easy to get stressed and grumpy, strained and out of sorts. Your heart is in the right place, but if you're at all like me, before it's all done, your head is throbbing!


I pray for each of us this Christmas that we will not do one single solitary thing that isn't a pure outflow of joy and celebration and gratitude for our great Giver-God who has already given the absolute perfect Gift that could ever be given in His Son Jesus.

Every gift we ever give should be because He gave.

Every song we ever sing should be because He lives.

Every light on every house glows the Light of the World.

Every tree we ever decorate whispers both rough-hewn manger and old rugged cross.

I pray that we won't get stuck on cascading escalators in crowded stores, but that we would see how far He came down to reach us, and that our spirits would rise with the angels who sang glory and peace and goodwill from God to man.

¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
¹⁴ “ Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

(Luke 2:13-14, New King James Version)

How are you keeping Christ in Christmas this year?