Five or six years ago I ran across an article that I will never forget. It detailed the plight of a pastor in China who had been imprisoned dozens of times for preaching the Gospel in house churches around his region. He had been captured so many times, in fact, that he always carried a duffle bag with a change of clothes in it wherever he went. However, what truly haunted me about this man’s story was his punishment in those Chinese prisons. Many times he was placed on a factory line where he was forced to make thousands of Christmas lights to be sold in the United States.

I was unable to find the original article, but christianity.com has posted the following information about Christians who continue to suffer the same persecution:

For many in the United States, Christmas lights are a nice way to decorate for the holidays and brighten the dreariness of winter. To some, they serve as a reminder of the light in the world as a result of our Savior’s birth.

WorldServe Ministries hopes that these decorations will also prompt believers to pray for more than 1,000 imprisoned Christians in China.

As we buy our Christmas lights, few of us notice the “made in China” tag that is attached. Even fewer know that to benefit China’s economy, the lights were probably made by persecuted prisoners, many of whom are Christian pastors.

According to WorldServe Ministries, pastors are subject to severe conditions and brutal beatings. Many are forced to work 16-20 hours each day assembling strands of Christmas lights. This is done without tools, causing their fingers and hands to bleed from threading the tiny wires through plastic holders and fitting in the plastic bulbs – with a quota of 5,000 bulbs per day.

If their work is not satisfactory, they are beaten and forced to re-do the work in addition to the next day’s quota.

This story is yet another good reason to shop fair trade so that we aren’t supporting these abuses, but it is also a powerful reminder. A popular verse at Christmas time is Isaiah 9:2 which reads,

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.

During the Christmas season we love to celebrate the “light” of which this verse speaks, but the above story also compels us to remember the darkness. We live in a dark world where followers of Jesus continue to be persecuted and killed for their faith. And while we don’t like to think about such a somber topic during this season, the darkness is what makes the light so bright. And good.

So yes, celebrate and rejoice! It is good to remember the birth of Christ and to praise God with happy festivities and moments of quiet awe. But let’s also remember those who cannot celebrate so freely. Pray for your brothers and sisters this Christmas who are fighting the good fight in very dark places. When you see the lights on your tree, remember the light of Christ, but also remember the darkness that he came to conquer, as well as your own important role in that battle.

This week I happened upon a news story about the above billboard–posted in New Jersey by the atheist advocacy group American Atheists–and the subsequent backlash that ensued. As you look at this billboard (you can click on it for a larger view), I want you to pause for a moment and reflect on your feelings about it. What kind of a personal reaction does this billboard cause?

If you’re anything like me, your feelings are probably a mix between anger and hurt. After all, Christmas is such an innocent season of hope and goodwill. My observance of Christmas is a positive one, not an aggressive or angry one, so the attack feels completely unwarranted.

However, almost as soon as I processed those thoughts my mind immediately turned to this convicting counter-point: My feelings are probably similar to those felt by non-Christians when they see Christian billboards commanding them to repent. The spirit of these two types of billboards is not so different.

The reality is that every religion or system of beliefs has within its ranks a visible few who steal the spotlight with their over-the-top behavior and offensive tactics. Atheism is certainly no exception, as self-righteousness and anger are common human conditions that plague us all.  And that is a perspective I have to keep in mind when faced with situations like this one. To borrow the language of the billboard, this perspective is the “reasonable” response.

But what is the Christian response? That is the real question I need to ask. While reason tells me to keep a cool head, the Gospel of Christ tells me to go even further. Consider Matthew 5:38-45:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”

It’s easy to forget how difficult it is to follow Christ. Jesus’ words sound great in theory, but my true feelings are quickly revealed with just the slightest bit of provocation. While it is tempting to respond tit-for-tat in these situations, a response of grace, love and gentleness is the real sign of faithfulness to God. Anyone can argue loudly but very few, when slapped on the cheek, will turn to have the other slapped also.

As we enter this Christmas season, remembering in quiet awe the miracle of Jesus’ birth, let’s not forget that the Incarnation is also a map for Christian living. God humbled Himself and became a man, suffering the persecution of a broken world when He deserved nothing but eternal glory. Blessedly, we are transformed by that act of grace, and we are to be a similar means of grace in the lives of others. When we feel unfairly attacked or judged, we are free from the burden of defending ourselves and are instead compelled to love in radical ways. I can think of no response more fitting as I celebrate this happy season.

In honor of the holiday weekend I thought I would write a Halloween themed post. And I could think of no better way to kick it off than with a picture of my dog in her Halloween costume! We don’t normally dress her up, but the town where I live had a massive pumpkin festival in which we competed to break the world record for most carved pumpkins. The record was 32,000 and we only made it to 26,000, but we still had a lot of fun and Ellie showed her team spirit with her costume.

(This particular picture makes me laugh because I think she looks like an evil dictator.)

Keeping with the Halloween theme, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about a popular show on the Travel Channel. It’s called “Ghost Adventures,” but it’s not your average ghost show.

The program is shot in a documentary style by 3 guys who spend the night in reportedly haunted places and report their findings. The show itself is not designed to be scary–no spooky music or raspy voiced narrators or up-close camera shots of them whispering, “I’m so scared!” It’s more of a scientific approach as the leader of the group aims to disprove supernatural skeptics. He explains during the opening segment of each show that he once had his own encounter with a ghost, and has since been driven by the desire to prove their existence in the world.

This show is fascinating to me because I think these men are sincere, and I also think they have no idea just what they’re messing with. In fact, one of the men admitted that his marriage eventually fell apart after he couldn’t stop having nightmares about a specific haunted location. As I’ve watched the show, it has given me a lot to think about in terms of spiritual warfare.

I’m also not the only one who finds this show interesting. It has grown in popularity and the Travel Channel shows it all the time. However, Ghost Adventures’ rise in popularity is not necessarily a unique phenomenon– it belongs to a long line of “haunted” entertainment (haunted houses, ghost stories, ghost tours, etc.) that consumers just can’t seem to get enough of.

The question is why? Why are people so captivated by stories about ghosts? And more strangely, why do people enjoy being scared by them? In an age when the supernatural realm is so publicly frowned upon and largely absent from mainstream media, why do these shows maintain such unchallenged acceptance?

Well you might be surprised to know that this is a question theologians have studied. In particular, theologian Rudolph Otto and the more familiar C.S. Lewis examined what this desire to be scared by ghosts tells us. According to both Otto and Lewis, the feeling of fear, dread, and awe that we experience when hearing a scary ghost story or watching a show about ghosts is the result of an encounter with the “numinous.” In his book The Problem of Pain, Lewis describes the numinous the following way:

“In all developed religion we find three strands or elements, and in Christianity one more. The first of these is what Professor Otto calls the experience of the Numinous. Those who have not met this term may be introduced to it by the following device. Suppose you were told there was a tiger in the next room: you would know that you were in danger and would probably feel fear. But if you were told ‘There is a ghost in the next room’, and believed it, you would feel, indeed, what is often called fear, but a different kind. It would not be based on the knowledge of danger, for no one is primarily afraid of what a ghost may do to him, but of mere fact that it is a ghost. It is ‘uncanny’ rather than dangerous, and the special kind of fear it excites may be called Dread. With the Uncanny one has reached the fringes of the Numinous. Now suppose that you were told simply ‘There is a mighty spirit in the room’, and believed it. Your feelings would then be even less like the mere fear of danger: but the disturbance would be profound. You would feel wonder and a certain shrinking–a sense of inadequacy to cope with such a visitant and of prostration before it–an emotion which might be express in Shakespeare’s words ‘Under it my genius is rebuked’. This Feeling may be described as awe, and the object which excites is as the Numinous.”

The above description may bring to mind the scene in Isaiah 6:5 when Isaiah stands before the holy God, trembling and confessing, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips.” That fear, awe and dread is what a human experiences in the presence of something holy, other, and completely transcendent. It is both a wonderful and frightful experience, and as Lewis explains, we encounter the fringes of that same sensation when interacting with lesser elements of the spiritual realm.

The reason people like to experience this particular kind of fear is that, without realizing it, they are glimpsing an echo of what it’s like to encounter God. Whenever we interact with the metaphysical, whether it is through worship, ghost stories, or even a truly magnificent work of art, it causes our souls to shudder in a way that is both frightening and marvelous. That is why humans seek after that feeling, not knowing that it is ultimately found in God.

Of course, the quest for the numinous can be a dangerous one, as I believe the men on Ghost Adventures have experienced first-hand. If you fixate on the wrong source, you will not only miss God altogether but instead fall into idolatry or a preoccupation with a darker, perilous realm. Even so, I see the popularity of shows like Ghost Adventures as a clear indicator that our country is spiritually thirsty. While science has made it unpopular to explore the supernatural in a legitimate, acceptable way, shows like Ghost Adventures offer a back door approach to asking questions about the supernatural realm in a less politically charged manner. They also provide us with a great way to start conversations that ultimately lead to the one true source of awe and wonder, a holy God.

A couple weeks ago my dog had to undergo minor surgery to have her teeth cleaned. The vet had to put her under anesthesia to clean the plaque off her teeth and pull a few teeth that were infected. I know I KNOW–I sound like one of THOSE dog people. But seriously, my fear of being that stereotype is why I put off having her teeth cleaned until now. Up until now I kept thinking, “Uh, she’s a dog. Dogs in the wild don’t get their teeth cleaned. I think she’ll be fine.” Come to find out that small dogs have bad teeth because of their genetics and if left unattended they can get severe infections. My bad.

But anyways, she had the teeth cleaning, the anesthesia, the whole nine yards, and since then we’ve been treating her like a baby. During the first day or two she didn’t feel well at all so we gave her pain meds and antibiotics around the clock. The pain meds were a liquid, which made them easy to ingest, but the antibiotics come in pill form, which means we had to get creative about giving them to her.

Our solution? Pepperoni. We found that if we wrapped that tiny little pill in half a pepperoni, she would swallow it in a split second. I don’t even know how she could taste the pepperoni when she ate it that fast. But suffice it to say, the pepperoni did its job. It successfully doctored up the medicine so that she would take it, and get better.

What does any of this have to do with Easter and Resurrection? Well last week I saw that a colleague of mine, Jared Wilson, had posted the following thought on his facebook status:

“Jared wishes churches would stop treating the resurrection like it’s the medicine you put in a donut to trick the dog.”

Now I thought this was a sharp idea. But when I ran it by my Women’s Bible Study last week, it totally flopped. People were looking at my like “Whaaaat?” But after reflecting on it I think I realized the problem–people don’t wrap their dog’s medicine in donuts. People wrap their dog’s medicine in meat or cheese or something small the dog can easily swallow…like pepperonis!

So I thought I would try this illustration again, because I think it’s a good one! The basic idea is this–the medicine I gave my dog was an antibiotic, something that she needed if she was going to fight the infection in her mouth. But the medicine had to be dressed up and doctored before she would accept it. The fact that it would heal her was not enough for her to accept it.

While my dog has an excuse for this behavior since she’s a dog, we treat the Resurrection of Christ the same way. Whenever we share the Gospel with people, we either ignore the Resurrection part of the story, or we dress it up so that it’s flashier or more appealing…AS IF IT NEEDS IT! If there is any story in the Bible, any doctrine or belief in the entire Christian tradition that does NOT need dressing up, it’s the Resurrection. The Resurrection is the best news that we have! It is what makes the Gospel the Gospel. We have eternal life because Jesus was resurrected, and we need only have faith in Him for the same outcome.

We don’t need to fancy up the Resurrection. If you find yourself having trouble selling the Resurrection, then perhaps it’s because you haven’t truly reflected on it lately. If you spend some time pondering the perfect and world-transforming miracle that took place in the Resurrection, then you wouldn’t have to dress it up. Its goodness would be written across your face.

The Resurrection is not a spiritual medicine that makes us well but is hard to swallow. It is beautiful and glorious. Now that Easter is here, sit at your Father’s feet and bask in the good thing He has done for us! He is Risen!!!!!!!

As I write this today I am sitting in the shadow of Duke’s Chapel bell tower as the death knell tolls for the Stations of the Cross. For those of you not raised in a traditional church, the Stations of the Cross is a Good Friday practice in which believers trace the path of Jesus’ last walk, stopping to read Scripture and meditate on his final moments. It is a sobering journey.

As I sit and listen to the bell toll, each clang shaking me to my core and moving me to tears, I hear the conversation of three young college women sitting 20 feet away from me. They are talking about who they hooked up with this week.

The irony of this moment is unmistakeable–these women are glorying in their sins while a bell tolls over them in remembrance of Christ’s death because of their sins.

There’s a part of me that is so angry listening to their complete and total obliviousness. But then again, that’s exactly why Christ had to die. Not because those women are particularly sinful, but because we all are. How often do I take for granted the magnificent gift I’ve been given? How rarely do I allow myself to confront the true darkness of my own soul, a darkness so profound that Jesus was executed for it?

Last night my husband and I discussed whether we would attend Duke’s Good Friday service, and I was leaning against it. During this service the story of Christ’s journey to the cross is read aloud, and after each stage some of the lights are turned off. At the point of Jesus’ death, all the lights go out and we sit in total darkness as the bell tolls 33 times for each year that Jesus lived. I sob through it every year.

But I just didn’t feel up to it this year. It’s a powerful, emotional experience that wrecks me every time, and I just wasn’t in the mood.

Yet as I listen to these young ladies and reflect on my own resistance to owning my sin, I think I’m going to go.

It’s important to reflect on the consequences of our sin. Not to stir up self-loathing guilt or shame, but because darkness enables the light to shine much brighter. It is not until we fully comprehend that from which we’ve been saved that we can truly rejoice on Easter Sunday.

So I challenge you to take some time today or this weekend to reflect on your sin. Ask God to open your eyes to the darkness so that you can fully appreciate the light. While we often blow past Good Friday because we can’t wait until Sunday, Easter isn’t really Easter without Good Friday.

Last night my husband and I went out to dinner to celebrate 6 months of marriage, as well as the second anniversary of our first date. It was a very special Valentine’s Day to be sure! As we sat across from one another at dinner, he slid a folded piece of yellow notepad paper across the table. I opened it up to read a wonderful love letter expressing his commitment to me and repeating his vows.

Now before you say “blech” and then click the “exit” button on this window, I promise this isn’t going to be a mushy gushy tribute to Valentine’s Day and my husband. The reason I mention this letter is that there were two things in it that were challenging to me, not only in the way I view my faith but the way I view my marriage as well. On the day after celebrating a holiday about love, Ike provided me with a thoughtful perspective that I think is helpful for us all:

1. Love is a Lifelong Commitment, Not a One-time Promise: What follows is a quote from the letter. Those of you who know Ike are going to crack up. He’s the only one I know who would quote Soren Kierkegaard in a love letter:

“Kierkegaard once quoted the saying, ‘To promise is honorable, but to keep is hard.” And then commenting on a generation that he saw make a lot of promises that it didn’t keep, he added his own corrective: ‘A promise is only honorable if someone does the hard work of keeping it!’ As I began to think on this, I thought of the promise I made to you and to God on the day of our wedding. I thought of the way in which it becomes so easy to pat myself on the back for making the promise as if the making of the promise itself is somehow meritorious. But in fact, the failure to keep such a promise would void the promise altogether and it possibly would be better not to have made the promise in the first place. The promises I made that day are honorable if and only if I keep them every single day.”

The truth of his words cannot be understated. In a culture that no longer views promises as binding commitments–more like a solid “I’ll do my best”–we as Christians have the opportunity to stand out by letting our yeses be yeses. (Matt. 5:37) This is true of our marriages, our friendships, our work commitments, and most importantly our commitment to God. The sincerity of a one-time promise to follow Him will be found lacking if it’s not followed by a lifetime of allegiance.

*I should also add that Ike’s commitment to love me is in no way encouraged or eased by who I am as a person. I am not super lovable, somehow making his promise an easy one to keep. On the contrary, I’m often a VERY difficult person to love, but that’s what gives meaning to his promise. A promise means little when it requires little of us. The promises that we must work to keep are the promises that say the most about our commitment.

2. Love is a Lifestyle–Ike closed his letter with the following words:

“The experience of Valentine’s Day cannot be created in a single day if it is not cared for and nurtured throughout the rest of the year.”

As romantic as his words were, the first thing I thought as I read them was, “So it is with God!” No woman should have to wait an entire year to be romanced by her husband. While we can’t all afford to go out to nice restaurants every night of the week, the affection displayed on Valentine’s Day should not be a once-a-year event. Otherwise, it doesn’t seem incredibly sincere. It’s more like a payoff to make up for the other 364 days of mediocrity.

And so it is with God. A once-a-week or once-a-year trip to church is no substitute for a lifestyle of adoration. And like a faithful wife, God desires our constant affection. The hour or two we spend in church should be a natural continuation of all that you do to love Him the rest of the week.

So those are just two lessons that I was reminded of on Valentine’s Day. On a day that is often cliché and superficial, they helped me to reflect on love in a fruitful and edifying way.

And for those of you who don’t have an aversion to sappy-ness, I will close with the this final tidbit from our date: As I read the letter in the restaurant I started to cry, and of course our waitress walked up right at that moment. She looked at me and asked if I was alright. (Looking back, I think it would have been funny if I’d told her that Ike just broke up with me, just to see how she’d react!) But anyways, I told her that we just celebrated 6 months of marriage and that it was the 2 year anniversary of our first date, so Ike had written this beautiful love letter to me in honor of the day. Well apparently our waitress was a hopeless romantic because SHE began to cry. In fact, she had trouble keeping it together as she collected our plates. She kept saying how beautiful it was and how she loved romantic gestures like that. All the while her bottom lip continued to quiver. It was very sweet, but also very funny!

On the night before Christmas Eve I am sitting by the fire with a cup of hot apple cider listening to Silent Night while the rest of the house sleeps soundly. I really do love Christmas.

Because of life’s unexpected circumstances in the last month, those are not words I have spoken until now. I’ve been a lot more somber this Christmas. My greatest comfort has come from reflecting on the delayed but promised hope that underlies the Christmas story. However, I don’t want the season to pass without celebrating the joy in the story as well. That’s the whole reason I look forward to Christmas each year!

As I’ve focused more on the light instead of the darkness, God keeps directing my attention to a particular character in the story: the innkeeper. He only gets one line in Luke 2:7,”…because there was no place for them in the inn.” In fact, the innkeeper doesn’t even get mentioned. Just his inn.

What fascinates me about this character is his role in displaying God’s abundant grace. Mary came to the innkeeper looking for a room to birth the SON OF GOD, but the innkeeper stuck her in a manger. Aside from the fact that this was a callous way to treat a woman in labor, we can’t miss the fact that she was giving birth to God. The innkeeper stuck God in a barn.

However, it’s important to remember that he could have turned her away altogether. He didn’t have to offer the manger. He could have shut the door and forgotten about the whole thing. So while he wasn’t exceedingly generous, he did offer what he had left.

And God used that tiny offering as part of the greatest story ever told.

The innkeeper offered very little, but God still used his offering. In fact, the innkeeper experienced great blessing as a direct result of the little he provided: he got to participate in one of the greatest miracles the world has ever seen! While we don’t know what happened to him, and we don’t know whether he became a disciple of Christ, we do know that the innkeeper’s meager manger became the site of God’s good and perfect plan.

Now before we go romanticizing the innkeeper, there is a significant contrast between the innkeeper’s offering and Mary’s. Mary offered her greatest possession, her own body. The innkeeper, on the other hand offered what he had leftover. There is a pretty wide spectrum of generosity between Mary and the innkeeper.

I rank closer to the innkeeper. And that’s what leads me to rejoice. Often I’m an innkeeper kind of Christian. I give my leftovers instead of my greatest possessions. But in spite of my flawed efforts and unfaithful heart, God still uses me mightily! He is gracious and slow to anger and abounding in love. I offer him a manger instead of a room, but He still works miracles through it.

That doesn’t mean that I’m content to be an innkeeper. The innkeeper may have been blessed, but Mary was blessed so much more. She offered her body to be used, so she experienced unparalleled intimacy and closeness with God. The innkeeper exited the story almost immediately, but Mary got to play an integral part in God’s plan. In the Christmas story, I want to be Mary, not the innkeeper.

This contrast teaches us one glorious lesson: The Christian life is driven by blessing, not guilt. When we inevitably fail, God does not smite us or shame us. On the contrary, He uses whatever we give. Don’t let your short-comings blind you to the goodness and faithfulness of God in your small sacrifices. But while guilt must not spur us to greater faithfulness, the promise of greater blessing should. The more we pursue God the more we draw near to His heart, the source and location of perfect joy and gladness. This Christmas I rejoice in God’s faithfulness to me in spite of my meager offerings, but I also pray for the diligence and desire to live like a Mary, and not an innkeeper.

Luke 1 is where we find the traditional story of Mary’s virgin pregnancy. In this chapter, the angel Gabriel comes to Mary and informs her of God’s plans. We then read Mary’s response in verses 46-55, where she proclaims what is often referred to as “Mary’s Song.”

If you read almost any commentary or book about this portion of Scripture, you are going to find one thing: A glowing commendation of Mary’s faith. In the face of such unexpected news, Mary bursts out in song proclaiming the goodness of God. She makes statements such as:

“My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (v. 46-47)

“From now on all generations will call me blessed” (v. 48)

“For the Mighty One has done great things for me” (v. 49)

She is only 13 or 14, she could be cast out of her family and abandoned by Joseph for being pregnant out of wedlock, and she is facing life as a single mother. Yet she responds with such amazing worship of God! Clearly a faithful woman deserving of praise.

However I have to admit–I can’t really relate to that Mary. According to most interpretations, she is too faithful to be afraid. That’s why we admire her so. But where is the humanity in that interpretation? Even Jesus felt fear in Gethsemane. Was Mary really impervious to the doubts that most of us would have experienced in her situation?

I don’t think so. And here’s why:

It’s important to know that Mary’s Song is not original to her. She is actually repeating Scripture found in 1 Samuel 2, also known as Hannah’s Song. Though not identical, it is obvious that Mary is intimately familiar with the passage and is calling on it now.

The reason this is significant is that Mary’s Song is not an eruption of spontaneous praise. There words and thoughts are not necessarily an overflow of her heart. She is instead speaking of what she knows the be true about God, even if she doesn’t feel it.

Mary is engaging in an act of discipline. She is actively conforming her heart to her mind. She knows God has been faithful in the past and will continue to be so in the future, but it will probably take her heart awhile to catch up with that knowledge. Until then, she preaches to herself the truths of Scripture. They comfort her at a time when her entire future is totally unknown.

That is a Mary I not only relate to, but can learn from. Mary’s faithfulness is not displayed by her blind joy but her discipline and perseverance in the face of fear and doubt. Tim Keller once described this very type of Scriptural meditation as follows: “Meditation is an inward dialogue with oneself…It means taking your heart in hand, reasoning with it and exhorting it until it becomes engaged in blessing and rejoicing in God. We are not helpless before our emotions, sometimes almost pummeling them into submission.”

The Christmas story is one of hope, yes, but it’s also a story of waiting. Mary was given a promise, but the fulfillment of that promise was yet to come. We will often find ourselves in that same place. God has promised us hope and salvation, but we still live in a world of brokenness, pain and frustration. So as we dwell in this place of waiting, we must respond as Mary did–meditate on the truth of God that we have in Scripture. The same God who delivered the Israelites and the same God who delivered Mary will also deliver us. We must be actively speaking that truth into our hearts every day.

One of my favorite blogs to read is The View From Her which offers both godly advice and practical advice for women. Last week she posted a blog entitled “Holiday Survival Tips for Singles” that I really loved. While her ideas are certainly helpful, I was most encouraged by the spirit behind them. You can see for yourself:

“The holidays can be a difficult time for singles. We feel awkward at parties full of couples. We get lonely. Our families continually ask when we’re going to bring a nice guy (or girl) home for Christmas. We find ourselves innocently lingering in the general beneath-area of the mistletoe. (…Maybe that’s just me.) Anyway, here are a few positive ways for singles to deal with the holidays.

You know what I’m saying. Don’t wait. Live your life now. Celebrate Christmas in every way you can.”

For more great posts on a View From Her, click here.

I LOVE that story about the cross necklace! Hilarious. But Jan’s (the author) point is also true. A lot of single women put off big purchases and life changes (like buying a house) until they’re married, which makes the living in waiting feel much more acute. I appreciate her acknowledgement of the fact that God has special treasures for single women too. You do not get His table scraps! God wants much more for you than you even want for yourself, so make sure you’re not missing out on it. Special thanks to Jan for grabbing hold of that truth and living it out!

Now that Thanksgiving is over the Christmas season has officially begun! I’m proud to say that this year I managed to hold off listening to any and all Christmas music until now, and I successfully avoided the Black Friday madness once again. Although I admit that the latter didn’t take much convincing. On Thanksgiving Day Ike and I were driving to my grandmother’s when we heard a commercial belittling other store sales that waited “as long as 7am to open.” This particular store, on the other hand, proudly opened at 4am! Seriously?!? This has gotten out of control!

The Christmas season has also launched me and Ike into a debate about whether or not to tell our future kids that there’s a Santa Claus. When I was little and discovered that my parents had been lying to me my ENTIRE LIFE about Santa Claus, I felt very much betrayed, so I’m having some serious misgivings about doing the same to my kids. Not to mention the fact that Christmas is about Jesus, not Santa. Ike, on the other hand, doesn’t feel so strongly about Santa, and wonders how it will work out practically speaking when other kids are talking about Santa and our kids are the party poopers who burst their bubble. I guess we’ve got time to figure this stuff out, but let me know if you have any insights.

There is a lot of craziness that surrounds Christmas and it’s largely a distraction, but I wanted to share with you one thought as we enter into this season. Since I lost my grandfather 2 weeks ago, I’ve found it really difficult to listen to Christmas music. He loved Christmas music more than anyone I know, so it’s been hard for me to listen to it without crying. My heart aches inside every time, which makes me even more sad because I love Christmas music so much myself.

I imagine Christmas is like that for a lot of people. While it’s a time to rejoice, we’re also reminded of loved ones who are no longer celebrating with us. It can be very bittersweet.

The one thing that has comforted me during this time is to focus on why it is we observe Christmas; just what it is we’re anticipating. Hope. While I miss my grandfather so much and our traditions will now be tinged with sadness as he is no longer with us, I’m simultaneously reminded that the reason we celebrate Christmas at all is because of the hope we have in God’s redeeming work through Christ. This little baby would one day die and rise again so that we no longer have to despair or mourn. And this little baby also reminds us that those who have gone before us are singing songs to their Savior which make Handel’s Messiah pale in comparison.

So if you’re like me and you’re missing someone right now during this joyful season, I want you to know that you’re not alone, but I also encourage you to take heart. The reason we celebrate is because we have hope. God has come near, and death is not the end of the story. That is why we sing!