Tamara Henion Photography

Oops!  Just when I thought Christmas 2013 was a wrap, I see something that was left out.

There it stood in plain sight: my Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. How could it have been overlooked? That’s an ironic thought when you put it in the context of the story itself. The rest of the gang was thinking quite the contrary, how could it not be overlooked.

Yet, like Charlie Brown Christmas, we both had it in our possession.

 It’s a quiet reminder that though the day we choose to celebrate Christ’s birth has come and gone for another year, the reason it’s  a joyous occasion at all needs to visited-in our hearts and homes-every day.

Although I have to put away Charlie Brown Christmas tree for now, I’ll continue to celebrate Jesus’ birthday.

 I’ll choose to remember that He came as that babe in Bethlehem with a purpose. He was born to die… and to live again.

Easter is just 106 days away!

It was 1996.  Just yesterday in my cleaning and organizing spurt -that didn’t last nearly long enough-I found a dusty, red spiral notebook. None of those are unusual at my house: dust, notebooks, finding old things…  I digress.  After swiping away the dirt and wondering why I had written “Private Property” on the cover, I rolled back the cover and began reading as my own handwriting script filled page after page.

Mid-way through, I get to the part where, as a new mom, I was praying for my baby son.  I asked the Lord not for the  things my little boy would do in his life, but rather who’d he become.  I wanted him to learn to love the Lord. I prayed he would have a kind heart and seek after God’s heart. I could quote it all here, but my words are not the important part.  Come with me now,  18 years later to today.

My baby son will be 20 years old this year.  Like a lot of 19 year old young men, he spends part of his life every day with little buds in his ears and  fingers on a keyboard.  There he sat doing the same thing he does day in and day out. Just him and his savior. Today he got up from the table for some reason, and about that time I was scuttling through the kitchen.  His ‘stuff’ was sitting predictably in his ordinary place, so I am surprised I took a second look at all.

But I did.

Sure am glad the Lord prompted my heart to pause and reflect on what ordinary looks like, and where it comes from.

…and as I type the tears cloud my vision.

Now all I have to say is, Thank you, Father. I am forever grateful.

Bless this son of ours with your goodness and mercy. Continue to use his life and his gifts to bring honor and glory to your holy name.

3 John 1:4 I have no greater joy than this: to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

Was Christmas really just 8 days ago? Really?

It was a simple but nice morning here at home, and everyone was happy giving and receiving special gifts from one another. To be sure, my 9 year old was happy with every gift he got-so happy that it was on to the next gift in record time. We could tell when one was more special than the next, because he’d go back to that opened gift and stay with it awhile more.  I loved watching that.  If you ask him what his best Christmas gift ever was, he’d  probably respond with whichever one he most recently played with- just like any other little boy who loves his toys would.

My oldest is 19 and it’s harder to buy gifts for young men who love baseball and, well, baseball when their equipment needs are well stocked.  However,  gift cards for his favorite restaurant and itunes cards speak pretty nicely to him. But, what fun are too many of those?  Then there’s cash.  Funny how starting your own job gives cash a fresh value-and it is always nice, right? But this is us. We often do things differently such as wrapping up an old baseball bat because we knew he’d be anticipating a new one. (I mean, a baseball bat in a box is pretty telling.) That was a fun year, and don’t worry, he did get his new bat!  This year we had a likely parents-only-funny moment as we were shopping in Target for an itunes card. We walked by the sweaters…and there it was staring right at us. A grey shawl collar knit sweater in size small. Yep. My 6’4″ 285 lb son was getting a sweater in small.  Not that size would matter too much because he hasn’t worn a sweater since he was 4 years old.  I wish you could have seen his face as he pulled that gem out of the box Christmas morning!  Funniest thing was watching him dig deeper into the then empty container. What did he think was in there?   That was a great way to give a gift card (if you ask us)!  Feel free to  use that idea  for yourselves next year when finding your own best Christmas gift ever. 😀

I do love giving my family gifts. I love watching their faces and their excitement. I love hearing their hearts come out in words as they thank us for something that is special to them. In that regard, I take my time when it comes to opening my own gifts. This year, the joy was in my sons’ faces as they eagerly awaited my response to the gifts they had lovingly chosen and wrapped for me.  Do I love Hobby Lobby? YES! Can it-or anything else-compare to the message on this envelope?  NEVER.  I love my boys and the best Christmas gift I’ve ever gotten, “To the best mom on earth,” and it was for ME!

Proverbs 31:28 Her sons rise up and call her blessed.

Somethings simply can not be underestimated.

My heart overflows, my mind races, my fingers can’t keep up. There is so much I want to say at this moment, but I have to first deal with the big speed bump that keeps everything else unsteady… New Year’s Eve.

If you’re on any social media right now, I don’t need to tell you it’s flooded with ‘out with the old, in with the new’ and the like. I read of past regrets and future hope. Of life anew and life that’s gone.  But this one facebook status scrolled through with the masses and really caused me pause: “New Year to me means FREEDOM.”

Out with the old.  In with the new. Out with the bondage. In with the freedom.  Really? Does that even sound right, because that IS what the conglomeration of the rolling statuses are saying.   Goodness. What a trap we bind ourselves in with these thoughts-with these beliefs.

Freedom with “New” is easy to understand.  A fresh start- I get that.  But freedom because the clock ticks midnight and the calendar changes? With that would also come some crux of crossover as new melds with old, the pages of the calendar flip to next, and, once again, freedom is overcome with bondage.  An endless  and futile cycle.

The other outlooks aren’t too promising either-peek at them with me: rich, thin, healthy, good, bad, control, happy…these things we wish for next year are the same we found ourselves uttering as the last ball dropped in NYC. Again we say, out with the old, in with the new. Freedom.  Who wants to live with finding freedom from the past on each December 31st knowing that hope turns to despair as the year unfolds leaving us in the same spot 365 days later?  Is there a way to end this turnabout?

We’re tarnished in our thinking. New. Old. Beginning. Freedom. We can’t think like God does.

God has a plan. A plan to pardon all that weighs us down and a plan to give us life abundantly and endlessly.

Isiaha 55:8 For My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways.

He can make old new and offer us freedom that truly frees us…forever.

The beginning was a long, long time ago.

My spunky and beloved mother in law’s birthday is today. She was born in 1915: 98 years ago.  It is also her 4th birthday celebration in heaven after her home-going just a few short years ago. (Where has that time gone?)  You sure learn a lot by living with someone who has that much life experience. Such a wealth of wisdom.  Yet,even for her, the  beginning wasn’t just shy of 100 years prior.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  Genesis 1:1

…and the stroke of midnight on any given night, nor the first of January…. that’s not the beginning.  It’s the start of our calendar year, but it’s not the beginning.  It’s the new year in and the old year out, but that’s only good for the moment, for the one second in time that it’s true. If we live to be 100, we’ve got 100 seconds of old becomes new. That’s not much to bank on, but again, our minds are clouded with ‘ordinary.’  I’m thankful that God’s ways are far from ordinary. What a mess we’d be in without him. An entire life  and only seconds of freedom as the clock ticks out with the old and in with the new, out with the old and in with the new, out with the old and in with the new for each New Year’s Eve we’re given in this life.  Not much hope there.

There IS hope. There IS a way to for old to be gone and new to outlast the calendar.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17

Borrowed from Matthew’s commentary, I love what he says about the one who finds Christ: “Though the same as a man, he is changed in his character and conduct. These words must and do mean more than an outward reformation. The man who formerly saw no beauty in the Savior that he should desire him, now loves him above all things.”

That’s me. That’s what the Lord has done in my life. New. Truly, out with the old and in with the new. No calendar, no crystal  ball dropping down on New Year’s Eve, but a truly transformed me by the Lord’s grace and through Christ.  Now, that’s freedom!

“I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. …But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:19

And at the end of the year sitting in my living room watching NYC come to life with celebratory hope for the year anew, I can say-even in the face of the hardest of years, I can humbly and thankfully proclaim the truth:

“Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders which You have done, And Your thoughts toward us; There is none to compare with You. If I would declare and speak of them, They would be too numerous to count.”  Psalm 40:5

This new year, 2014, I pray that you too know the truth of real hope, know the relief of really being able to say out with the old and in with the new, and know the personal experience of true freedom  as found only in Christ.

Happy New Year!