JOY

Sights...Words...Tastes...Experiences

 from the Third Week of Advent

I'm learning how to do something pretty.

Ordinary driveway beauty.

"The message of Christmas is that this world's a mess and we can never save ourselves from ourselves and we need a Messiah.  For unto us a child is born."                     

                                                                         Ann Voskamp

# Light the World - Jesus worshipped through song and so can you.

"We were made to worship- our internal circuitry wired to worship. Every moment you live, you live bowed to something.  And if you don't choose God, you'll bow down to something else." 

                                                                         Ann Voskamp

Who has the biggest sprinkle collection?  This girl!

Pre-party kitchen.

Wray Family Christmas Party

"It is advent again. Be alert, be alert, so that you will be able to recognize your Lord in your husband, your wife, your parents, your children, your friends, your teachers, but also in all that you read in the daily papers. The Lord is coming, always coming.  Be alert to his coming.  When you have ears to hear and eyes to see, you will recognize Him at any moment of your life.  Life is Advent: life is recognizing the coming of the Lord."

                                                           Henri Nouwen

"Christmas is often seen as a season of excess.  What it ought to be is a poignant season of remembrance.  The point of all the food and song and gifts is not some hedonistic, once a year immersion in material over-indulgence.  The point is to put flesh and expression to joy.  If we lose sight of the Christ's child's coming, if we forget the heavenly joy we are trying to embody, then Christmas can easily become a season of excess.  But when the Incarnation is at its heart, then every song, every special meal, every planned event becomes a pageant in which the drama of the heavenly story is lived out."

                         Sally Clarkson - The Life Giving Home