In week three, we head to the familiar Christmas passage in Luke 2:1-20, where we read how Jesus was born in Bethlehem! We find that God didn’t announce Jesus’ birth to kings or government officials. Rather, God sent an angel choir to announce this news to a bunch of...
Keepsake: Christmas Card UpcycleI love receiving Christmas cards, but I always find myself at a loss with what to do with them once the season has ended. It doesn't feel right to throw away lovely cards that people took the time create and send, but saving them in a...
Savoring Stillness This is the day the Lord has made, let us be glad and rejoice in it. Psalm 118:24 (ESV) his morning, I’m standing in my living room looking through the windows to watch my dogs as they scamper through the morning frost. As I...
Remake: Social Media Gift Exchange Two things Sherri Edmond's husband Paul loved before he died in 2013 were Christmas and anonymous acts of kindness. Since Sherri and Paul never had children, she found herself both lonely around the holidays as well as looking for a...
Baby Jesus and the Six Cats of Christmasam not a big decorator, and I have not purposefully established a Christmas tradition. I do, however, set out two decorations each December: a nativity set with small figurines, and the book The Twelve Cats...
Bake: Peanut Butter Cracker CookiesJolita Peterson's father grew up Amish as one of 16 kids. These cracker cookies were an inexpensive way for his family to come together in making them by the hundreds to share with neighbors and friends at Christmas. Jolita remembers...
A Time To Givehis is the first year that my husband and I are spending Christmas together as a married couple, and to be completely transparent, deciding how to spend the holidays has been a big source of tension in our new marriage. When we first...
A right relationship with Jesus Christ manifests itself not in some extraordinary otherworldliness, but in and through our Christ-like conduct and loving human relationships in this world. It is in our conduct and relationships that we are most in need of...
In week two, we turn to Luke 1:26-56. The Messiah had been promised for generations, but no one would have guessed that God would use a young woman to bring that promise to fulfilment—including that young woman herself. Mary was awestruck when the angel came to...
Keepsake: Thumbprint Plate for Santa's CookiesKeep track of your little one's Christmases by adding a new thumbprint "light" to this plate each Christmas Eve before you set cookies out for Santa. As those fingers grow, you'll have a colorful reminder of each print...
Seize the Opportunity What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him. I Corinthians 2:9 (ESV) About two years ago, my aunt called me ecstatically, sharing that she won a $10 ticket to see the famous...
Seven Fish, One Lights an adult, many of my Christmas Eves were spent with my wife and children at our small, local church service. The kids and I would hang up our coats, grab a candle out of the box, and proceed to the pew closest to the piano....
Remake: Operation Community Christmas I first discovered Operation Christmas Child 10 years ago – it quickly became one of my favorite holiday traditions. OCC is an annual program that collects shoeboxes filled with gifts and delivers them to children in need around...
Christmas Cards and Open Heartsy recently married cousin called the other day to ask if she needed to start sending Christmas cards now that she was officially an adult. She liked receiving cards but wasn’t sure that she was ready to get on board...
We may have several roles we play in society: as a spouse, a parent, or a co-worker, to name a few. At the same time, there are cultural standards for what it means to be “good” at the various roles we find ourselves in. But these cultural standards are sometimes in...
In our first week, we start in Luke 1:5-25, 57-66, where we find Zechariah and Elizabeth. They were unable to have children. On top of that, they were older, and having a child of their own seemed impossible. Then one day, an angel came to Zechariah and told him that...
Bake: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip BreadStephanie Saltz grew up watching her mother bake pumpkin chocolate chip bread instead of cookies each Christmas. "At the time I thought we were being ripped off," she says. "All of the other families I knew made cookies at...
Light Workhated the idea of hanging Christmas lights outside of our home. I thought it was a waste of time to put up lights only to take them back down a few weeks later. My wife, on the other hand, had trouble imagining Christmas in our home...
You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown! For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 (KJV)...
The Wonder of Advents a child, I would eagerly await the arrival of December 1, the day we could start opening our Advent calendars. The thick, paper calendars – imported from Europe by my mom who’d spent most of her childhood there as a missionary...
This week, we head to something Paul wrote in2 Corinthians 8:1-5. The believers in Corinth had an opportunity to really help the people who were struggling in Jerusalem. Paul highlighted how the church in Macedonia donated freely, even though they were very poor. This...