Up the Sunbeam

-- ♪  ♫   "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas . . . "   ♫  ♪ Okay, so maybe this isn't what Christmas looks like on Christmas cards and in story books and where I grew up, but this is what Christmas looks like where I live now.  No snowmen, no sleigh rides, and no caroling after dark with snowflakes floating down like big downy feathers--I miss the snow so much, but thankfully Christmas finds it's way to me anyway in vivid living color! It's funny, some people lament long and loud about how soon the stores start putting up decorations and they groan at the first strains of Christmas music--Bah! Humbug!  At the opposite end of the spectrum are the ones who can't wait to get started on their own efforts (some of them have even finished already!) to deck their halls and bake Christmas treats and they have been listening to Christmas music since the 4th of July!  Still others go all out to decorate in a big way but complain the whole...

Word became flesh . INCARNATION The Flesh-wearing Word lived and breathed and moved among us, sharing our space-and-time existence, for a span of 33 years.  In that mere blink of history, He spanned the chasm between divine love and human desperation. Christmas . . . His coming.  We so easily envision His birth, the praising angels, the Joy to the World, the Peace on Earth, the Good Will to Men, shepherds, wise men, drummer boys--the Christmas card comes to life in our mind's eye.  But do we rewind a little further, go back to the moment where He took off His glory like a glistening robe and left it hanging on a hook in Heaven's hallway?  Do we envision the moment He handed His crown to His Father and said, "Don't worry--I've got this!  I'll go!"  Do we reckon with the sacrifice it was for Him to limit all that He had always been to the permanent wearing of humanity, just so He could rescue us from the dragon . . . and ourselves . . . and our ugly sin...

Northern California is rainy this time of year.  While many of you are eagerly anticipating the beauty of a white Christmas, here we get rain .  Some people don't like it and can't wait for the return of the sunshine, but I like the break in the monotony of weather that doesn't have 4 distinct seasons to follow.  Rain is also lovely for turning the hills an almost Irish shade of green (at least how I imagine Ireland to be).  Then there's always the fact that I hate it when the powers that be talk about drought and rationing water and expecting me not to flush toilets--so yessirree, I do love the rain!! This week brought rain, really more heavy mist than rain, but so heavy you could actually hear it. It soaked and soaked and soaked into everything.  For a day and a half it lingered.  It gave some people all the reason they needed to complain.  I just listened to the lovely soft sound it made and breathed it in.  The morning it stopped, I drove ...

I love Christmas lights!!  I love the color and dazzle they bring!  I love that they illustrate the truth that Jesus came as the Light of the world!  Every year there are a number of houses I can't wait to see decorated! Some of them are so elaborate, I think the people must have to start around the 4th of July to get all those lights in place for the next Christmas season!  I love it that there are people who will go to these lengths, but it makes me tired just to think about all that work!!  Here is a video of one such magical place (I've never been there, but would love to see this in person!)--more power to 'em!! Pretty great, huh?!!  I think so too! Of all the houses that I love to see decorated, there is one house I look forward to more than all the others.  They came through for me just this past weekend, much to my delight!!  My son called me a "creeper" for going and lurking in front of this house, quietly snapping pictures to captu...

Our house has no front windows. It didn't occur to us when we bought the house that this would be a big deal, but we have discovered over the last 10+ years that it is sort of a big deal. You can't see anything that's going on in front of the house without running upstairs. It's a weird feeling. One of the first things we did was to replace the solid double doors at the entry with a single door with decorative side panel windows. Two slim slivers of glass, faceted decorative glass at that, through which light can come in and we can peer out. I feel like a peeping Tom when I look out these windows, bending down to put my eye up to the little bits of glass that give a true view, trying to see who rang the doorbell, or if my kids are home yet.  Unlike the peeping Tom, I'm peering out, not in! This morning, I rounded the corner from the dining room on my way upstairs and I saw the facets of my beveled, leaded glass windows glowing with what was...

-- The re 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 Bethle...

-- 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 c...