Christmas time is here

It's Christmastime. What does that mean? It means jingle bell earrings that sing a silvery song with each step I take and bobble of my head. It means Wilmore Old Fashioned Christmas, walking around town bundled in knitted scarves and drinking hot chocolate provided by vendors selling homemade Christmas gifts. Covering our doors with snowman wrapping paper and cutting snowflakes out of construction paper to hang from the ceiling. Lit angels attached to streetlights and Christmas lights outlining homes like gingerbread houses. It means that soon I'll be going home to be with family again, baking peanut butter cookies and watching the lights on the Christmas tree blur when my eyes water. Dad says it's snowing in Wisconsin right now, and I know the fire will be lit in the living room as the flames reflect off the hardwood floors and the Christmas tree fills the room with pine. I can't wait to go home again, but for now I breathe in my pumpkin spice candle and string my Christmas lights around my room and listen to my 15-year-old Christmas carousel run out of batteries. It's Christmastime! No matter where I am, the mere thought that it's Christmastime makes me feel full, warm, and joyous. My heart sings this song...or maybe this song sings my heart....

Still, still, still,
One can hear the falling snow.
For all is hushed,
The world is sleeping,
Holy Star its vigil keeping.
Still, still, still,
One can hear the falling snow.

Sleep, sleep, sleep,
'Tis the eve of our Saviour's birth.
The night is peaceful all around you,
Close your eyes,
Let sleep surround you.
Sleep, sleep, sleep,
'Tis the eve of our Saviour's birth.

Dream, dream, dream,
Of the joyous day to come.
While guardian angels without number,
Watch you as you sweetly slumber.
Dream, dream, dream,
Of the joyous day to come.

"I've got plenty to be thankful for"

I'm thankful for, among so much else.... cranberry tea and football games and traditions and stone fireplaces and cream cheese frosting on pumpkin cookies and Christmas lights and Christmas music in the kitchen and cinnamon candles and endless turkey leftovers and snow on Thanksgiving Eve and nutmeg-sprinkled eggnog and all four Lethal Weapons for $10 and Christmas movies at night and "homemade" and

my neighbors being home when I locked myself out of the house on Wednesday. As cold as it was running down the street in my pajamas and socks, I enjoyed meeting Peggy and Phil.
("Which house do you live in?" Peggy asked me.
"That blue one down there," I answered.
"Do you live at home? I've never seen you before."
I should have introduced myself as Boo Radley and then stabbed her leg with a pair of scissors.)

and afternoon naps, which I think I'm going to take right now, as Alton Brown makes coconut cake on the Food Network.

Oh there's no place like home for the holidays // for no matter how far away you roam // If you want to be happy in a million ways // for the holidays you can't beat home sweet home

a lasting Marriage

Wednesday I read this verse in Ezekiel: "Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign Lord, and you became mine" (16:8). I looked this verse up in many different translations, and love bits and pieces of different translations:

- "'And when I passed by again, I saw that you were old enough for love. So I wrapped my cloak around you to cover your nakedness and declared my marriage vows.'" (NLT)
- "'When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love'" (NKJV).
- "'Then I solemnly promised that you would belong to me and that I, the Lord God, would take care of you'" (CEV).
- "'I came by again and saw you, saw that you were ready for love and a lover. I took care of you, dressed you and protected you. I promised you my love and entered the covenant of marriage with you. I, God, the Master, gave my word. You became mine'" (The Message).

I felt like those words were just for me. God sees my heart and its readiness to be loved, and He wants to be my lover! I loved the idea, but I didn't know what to do with it. Then...

Saturday my Intro. to Literature class went to our professor's house to eat pancakes. I could write an entire entry about the Christmas tree in the window, the homemade peach preserves, and the joy with which her son received his guests, but I'll try not to digress. After Mrs. Moulton divulged that she and her husband will be married 49 years this summer, I asked, "What would you say is the secret to a lasting marriage?" Death to oneself, she answered. A deference to one's own pleasures, to serve the other, to make the other happy. Communication is key to that death, to learn what will please the other so as to serve him better. And to be complemented, to be completed by the other. She said, "The parts I struggled to be I could be with Alan," who brought out the side of her she couldn't express without him. How romantic and applicable to my future marriage. Then...

Last night as I read Jeremiah 33:39 ("I will give them singleness of heart and action"), Ezekiel 16:8 came back to me. I thought about this marriage with the Lord and how willing He is to enter into this covenant with me, if only I would reciprocate. And oh, to have singleness of heart! To be fully committed to my Husband and want no other! To have singleness of action and live only to please Him! Then...

I began reading chapter 8 of Deep Unto Deep by Dana Candler and was blown away. Her words ran parallel to my journaling just a few minutes before. On page 125 I read, "Communication with God is the continual expression and experience of mutual affection between God and the human heart." It was then that I realized everything Mrs. Moulton had told me about a lasting earthly marriage applied to my marriage with the Lord Jesus Christ. Death to myself to better serve the Lord, communication with Him, and to be completed and made whole by His strength in my weaknesses! I couldn't believe the way these little gifts had been given to me throughout the week to be brought together in one incredible Christmas Day last night!

What a beautiful revelation. To live in such Truth! And prepare for eternity. Brings a smile to my lips!

Prose and Poetry

This morning has been poetry. Dr. Vincent lost his lecture notes on Hemingway and instead we spent the hour discussing Emily Dickinson. My heart was like a sponge, soaking up the nuggets of gold we dug out of Dickinson's poems until I felt too full to hold anymore.

"Faith" is a fine invention
When Gentlemen can see --
But Microscopes are prudent
In an Emergency.

That's the way Dr. Vincent described Emily Dickinson's poems, each one a microscope observing incidences of life like slides. Glimpses into minute details of a world otherwise missed.

But the poetry didn't stop there. I drank hot coffee that cooled as I sat in class and afterward walked down the sidewalk lined with bright yellow and red trees, dropping vibrant leaves onto the ground. Then snowflakes, small and sparse, fell from wintry gray skies. I situated my purple scarf I most likely knitted last autumn while watching a football game, and thought how full and contented I felt. It made me want to write my own "microscopes" to try to detail the beauty of this season of my life.

"'I suppose that's how it looks in prose. But it's very different if you look at it through poetry...and I think it's nicer...to look at it through poetry.'" Anne Shirley, Anne of Avonlea