If I was the totally organized, on-top-of-things wife and mother that I want to be, everyone of you would have received a version of this picture for your Christmas card.
Aren't they precious?
But because I'm not even half "totally organized" and only seldom "on-top-of-things", that isn't what happened. I didn't order enough cards. :( And because I ordered them so late, I couldn't order more in time. :(
So, it is my hope that for those of you that I dearly love, and didn't receive a Merry Christmas greeting from the Lancasters by mail, would accept this virtual one. They are both sent with the same amount of care and thought.
Last year, our card pic was professional. Brandy Jaggers did such a good job with those pictures. They were taken in August and it was so convenient to use one of those lovely shots for our Christmas bit o' cheer. I had no trouble clicking on that image and creating the perfect card and sending it your way.
This year was a bit more difficult. Ty doesn't like his picture to be taken. At least by me and beside his sisters. Getting all 4 of them much less all 6 of us together in decent clothing and smiling all at the right time is almost impossible for casual photography. I searched through our most recent pictures to try to find at least 4 separate shots of the kids to put on those cards with lots of pictures. NO success.
I had almost given up on the prospect of a Lancaster 2012 Christmas Card. Maybe next year.
We have really been soaking up Christmas with the kids and on the nights that there are no ballgames or Christmas programs to attend, we have been trying to do something "Christmas special". Well, on this night a couple of weeks ago, after I woke from my Monday nap after working, we ate supper together, bathed the children and then decided that we all needed to load up in the car and go look at Christmas lights. The pajama-clad, blanket-wrapped children were SO on board for this one.
Our first drive was through our neighborhood and it naturally took us to the beautiful Collins' yard. We have seen it many times this season already, but usually as we semi-slowed down and sailed past. This time we hopped out of the car to get a closer look and enjoy the music more. (Yes, MUSIC!) The Collins' weren't home so we did't venture up too far. The kids were busy saying, "OOooo! Look at that one!", "Oh my, Momma! Did you see that one!".
Isn't it beautiful?
Well, thankfully, I had my camera. I cried out to the kids, "Let's take a picture of you by the JOY sign!" The girls immediately shrieked and ran toward the sign. Ty immediately sighed and said, "Oh no. Please, no." I ignored him and shrieked and ran with the girls. Ty warmed up to the idea eventually and wasn't it a beautiful picture. He even took this picture of Eric and I.
After we finished trespassing, we drove around for another 45 minutes or so enjoying the beauty of all the pretty lights in town, thanking God for them and their owners, and happy that we didn't have to do any of the work or store the figures year-round. We had great fun but I couldn't get them to get out of the car again. Not even for the Trojan reindeer on Hickory.
When we arrived home, I downloaded the pictures to my computer and knew that I wanted one of those pictures to be our Christmas card. Those moments in the Collins' yard captured where we are right now.
We were in our pajamas. (Not Eric but the rest of us.) I wasn't wearing any make-up. My sweats didn't even match. All I heard after I told Tess that we were going to use that picture was, "Oh, Momma! But I have my braids in!" She or I braid her hair for her to sleep in at night. I was glad that the picture showed the REAL us. The US that we are most of the time. We aren't put together. Our blemishes are exposed. There is no veneer to hide behind.
These past few months have been hard. My illness was only the brink of the iceberg. Someday, I may be able to share with you about the heartbreak, confusion, devastation, and pain that they held; about the struggles we are still experiencing. But for now, just know that they were enough to put us under, to break us, to scar us beyond recognition.
But that night, as on many nights, when the world would have expected to see defeat, despair, and ugliness, this is what the world would see:
Were we hurting? Yes
Were we disappointed in our humanness? Yes
Were we a long way from fixed? Yes
BUT GOD GAVE US JOY.
Would you bear with me and read this next long passage courtesy of biblegateway.com?
Romans 8:12-39
The Message (MSG)
12-14 So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!
15-17 This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!
22-25 All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.
26-28 Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
29-30 God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.
31-39 So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:
15-17 This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!
18-21 That’s why I don’t think there’s any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what’s coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.
22-25 All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.
26-28 Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
29-30 God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.
31-39 So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:
They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.
We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.
None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.
I shared this on a post long ago but it puts into words in a small way what I get from the above scripture:
I am a sinner.
I deserve to die for my sin.
I can't do anything by myself to save myself from that death.
God is a loving God.
He doesn't want to see me punished.
But God is a just God.
He must punish sin.
God sent His Son to earth to live a perfect life, die on a cross, rise from
the dead to pay the price for my sin.
By trusting in God and by believing in Jesus Christ alone for
eternal life I was saved from this death.
By faith, I transferred my trust from myself to Jesus Christ.
I will go to heaven when I die and live eternally with Him.
Even though I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior,
it doesn't mean that I don't sin. Sadly, I still do. But because
of my relationship with Him, I can ask forgiveness for that
sin and He forgives and forgets and I try to do better.
But because I am His, I can never be separated from Him.
Because of these things, I can have joy despite my circumstance, despite how I feel, and despite what the world might see.
My future is bright in His hands. Because my hope is in Him, I can cry, "What's next, Papa?", instead of saying that all is lost.
This doesn't come easy all the time. Most days it is really hard. But, oh, what we learn in the hard places!
So, this Christmas, the picture of your life may not be perfect. It may be the worst picture you have ever taken. But God sees the real you, and loves you anyway. His is a love that isn't just enough, but greater than your imaginings. His is a love that doesn't quit, walk away, and won't allow anything to tear it from you.
So will you sing with me today, especially if it is for the first time:
Habakkuk 3:17-19
Amplified Bible (AMP)
17 Though the fig tree does not blossom and there is no fruit on the vines, [though] the product of the olive fails and the fields yield no food, though the flock is cut off from the fold and there are no cattle in the stalls,
18 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the [victorious] God of my salvation!
19 The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds’ feet and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk] and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]!
For the Chief Musician; with my stringed instruments.
Merry Christmas, my friends,
with love from the Lancaster's
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