Merry Christmas!

As I sit down to write this blog post, I am really at a loss for words. I want this to express my feelings about the holiday we celebrate today and yet I don't even know where to begin, so I'll start with one word.

Grateful.

Not because it is November and the "month of gratefulness" or because someone has asked me what I am grateful for, but because I truly don't know where I would be if my Jesus didn't come to earth to make a way for me to come to God and have personal relationship with him.

To me, Christmas is more than a time to be with family and to give gifts to those we love and to build traditions. Those are all nice things, but to me, Christmas really will always be about Christ, the one for whom it is named.

And because of him, I have hope. Hope in the many promises he has given me and faith that he will do exactly what he has said he will do. Hope in the one who has control of all, that he will do what is best for me and will take care of me as only he can. And hope that someday he will come to take me to be with him in heaven and I can be free from this world and it's influences.

I am grateful for the grace of God. Unmerited favor. Just because God chooses to love me, he has placed his hand on my life and blesses me far beyond what I deserve. If you don't believe God is good, just take a look at the kids he gave me. You hear all the horror stories about adopting older kids (meaning babies) and how they come with so many issues and they never really attach to new parents and are permanently scarred. But for the grace of God my kids are more normal than most normal kids. Yes there are struggles , but there are with all kids. In the spectrum of the very things I feared going the adoption route, my kids are so well adjusted and just fit in our family. They even look like us. And then God blessed us with Seth, another precious gift from our loving Father. All because of the grace of God. Amazing!

I am thankful for mercy and forgiveness! Mercy is the reason I am not punished daily when I fail, and I do mess things up often. I am thankful for second chances and do-overs. I strive to be Christlike but I fail sometimes as we all do. But God lovingly picks me up, dries my tears and encourages me to keep on going, allowing his strength to fill the gaps where I am weak. Praise God!!

All this is ours because Jesus came to earth, as a baby, to be our savior. Without  Christ life would be without purpose or hope.

I pray this Christmas you take some time with God to love on him and thank him for his goodness in your life. Because he is worthy of all your praise. No one else has shown such great a love as he did by sending his son to earth just for you.