SOUP WEATHER & A MERRY CHRISTMASTIDE

it feels so very freeing to not want loads of stuff for christmas.  to enjoy the little things with people we love.  to laugh with friends and eat.  eat, eat, eat.  love that part.  ;)  which means lots of baking: something i am not very talented at.  time to wear ugly sweaters.  (the father calls them "stupid sweaters.")  i must admit as a young child it was all about the stuff.  that want -- nagging desire, desperate need (what i thought was a need) -- was all it was about.  it's funny that every year when i got that "thing" the next year i would need something else.  that desire was never fulfilled.  i still read the nativity story and acted like a good girl at church and made Jesus ornaments but that was all on the outside.  and Christ cares more about the inside.  by far.

this year i stressed about stuff also.  not what i wanted but what i was going to give to the people i love.  what do they really want?  and how do you get that want off the tip of their tongue?  ugh.  it's a hard process.  gifts just seemed to not express enough love.

so this christmas it's about the inside.  the giving of love, the thankfulness, the peace the Holy Spirit brings.  it boggles my mind when i read the nativity story in context of biblical prophecy and realize how powerful our God is.  it amazes me every time.  that He would take the form of a human like us, live among us, and die so that we may live.  living for Him makes that nagging desire whole.



& today i live.