If I could, I’d bundle up every day of December in a big sweater and Christmas socks, sit by the tree with a good book, and listen to Frank Sinatra promise me that he’ll be home for Christmas. Alas, the world is a bit colder, and requires emotions and energy that I’m not always prepared to give. I hear more news of mass shootings, see pictures of unsponsored children and their families across the world, look into the eyes of... Read more
While Advent is about the way we remember who Jesus is, it’s also about the way He remembers who we are. Did the Spirit within that baby in the womb know your name and mine? Did Baby Savior kick His legs and sing songs over us before He even entered our world? I believe it’s possible. Let us not forget, as we inch our way toward Christmas morning, that His heart was always for us– for the whole, human... Read more
1 John 4: 11-12 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us– perfect love! As I get older, I’m finding how imperative it is that I choose to love people. And each year that I get older, I find that my internal clock begins a new year... Read more
“…lay before him what is in us, not what ought to be in us.” –CS Lewis Jesus, On some mornings during this Advent season, we wake up weary. We are tired and worn thin, and we can see right through each other, our vulnerability being the biggest fear of all. But when You came, You broke open the floodgates. With Your appearance, we became something new, and our vulnerability created a space to be seen and known and... Read more
A little while after we were married and Christmas time had come, I dragged Travis to Hobby Lobby to ornament shop. The plan was to buy an ornament each year to represent where we were in life. Travis chose a goose, forever his favorite bird. I chose a bright green oven mitt with utensils sticking out of the top. “Love to Cook,” it read. If being new to marriage wasn’t challenge enough, my cooking capabilities were the hardest skills to... Read more
(refugee: a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster) You came from the belly-warmth into the atmosphere of earth, Your lungs filled with oxygen and Your voice the shrill cry of new infant-life. You came from another world, but instead of running from a land of war to a land of peace, You stepped out of the Trinity’s space into the toxins of our flesh. You stepped into every known... Read more
Remember how Jesus was a story-teller? How he answered questions with characters and dialogue and some sort of tension? He answered that way, gave humanity to humanity’s question. What stories do we find ourselves telling this Christmas? What questions are we asking, or are our children asking us? May we lean in closer to the tree. May those tiny white bulbs bring life from our lives, bring stories of humanity from our lips. This is how we celebrate the... Read more
Jesus, Our speed is often our downfall. In an attempt to be the first to get the most done the quickest way possible, we lose the glory of the process– the living part of being alive. But You, You took Your time. You learned to crawl and one day decided to walk. You made Your way to the synagogue and felt Your way along its walls and corridors. You took to the quiet places and then, stored up, You... Read more
We burned an early fire at our little hearth this year. The temperatures dropped a little lower a little earlier, so we ran to the store for firewood. After the logs turned to embers and became ash, we went about our evening. We’d forgotten the way the heat lingers on. Isaiah, my 2-year old, reached out and touched the glass door to the fireplace with his index finger and howled out in pain. After a few kisses, all was well.... Read more
A lot of people I know take a little break from social media when December rolls around– a time to focus on being present with family and friends. But for those of us here, present in the online world, there is also work to be done in encouraging and preparing one another for the coming of Christmas. We’ve got beautiful Advent reflections by Bonhoeffer sitting in a book next to the recliner, and my boys have bound pages full of... Read more
Stories - with Kaitlin B. Curtice
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