We have felt so blessed these last weeks as challenges have come up and God's truth has remained. We can see his work in our lives! At school, at home, with our friends, you name it. A couple of weeks ago Luke caught a raunchy case of strep throat and was laid up for days with a fever and all the rest, and there was no question of him going to school. But our fellow English teachers stepped up and took his classes, not sparing their limited planning/off teaching hours, and graciously took care of everything until Luke was able to return a few days later. Emphasize the word graciously. They were full of grace, no grumbling, just care and grace. Phew, what a blessing! It's always nice to take the time at Thanksgiving to reflect on God's grace to us, and this year was no exception. I am so amazed by our Father's kindness to us. We're thankful for growing friendships here in China--we can have relationships that matter! They display matter in how they bring joy to us personally, and relationship means everything to God! And personal joy. It's not about being happy, though I think God is happy when we're happy, if we're happy about things that make him happy, but it's more like a life-giving happy. Being life-giving, that's important. The power of the gift of Jesus's life, that's really important. And here we are! It's time to prepare, to anticipate the coming of Jesus to this world.
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| Big turkey in a little oven! |
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| Happy Thanksgiving! Too bad I look a little silly. |
We downloaded an Advent devotional from Ann Voskamp, and it's based on the Jesse Tree idea. If you're interested, her website is
www.aholyexperience.com. If you look on the sidebar on the left, click on "Free Tools" and then you'll see the devotional come up-you need to request it be sent to your email. Anyway, we want to anticipate the coming of Jesus. We need to remember our need (our inheritance was nothing...we were a dead tree stump) and yet God promised that a new branch would grow, and that it would bear fruit (Isaiah 11:1, 10). It reminds me of when I learned about nursing logs on a nature walk in third grade. That's really what this promise is! Every person together was as good as a crusty, musty old rotting stump, and yet Jesus came, the promised life came to us! So this is our Jesse Tree, maybe our new family tradition.
And we decorated the place for Christmas too! Santa welcomes you, and here's Luke's proud picture (I'm imagining he's saying, "Hi, kids!"). Heehee.
Every day this week one of the H family boys (he's also my student) has come to class and said, "Merry Christmas, Teacher Stephanie!" I like that. It can start now. Merry Christmas-ing, Merry Advent-ing, Merry Anticipating Jesus!
