For me....
It's the celebration of the birth of Jesus, God's one and only Son.
However, because I'm human and I live in America, it's also a lot of hustle and bustle.
It's shopping for gifts. It's crafting homemade ornaments. It's reds and greens and silvers and golds. It's church spectaculars. It's Christmas light tours. It's giving and kindness. It's baked goods, big dinners, and opening mounds of gifts.
It's time with precious loved ones; family and friend alike.
Yesterday it became a lot less about hustle and bustle.
Early in the afternoon, I heard the news that our friends had lost their two and a half month old son. Jeremiah was one of three boys born prematurely in mid October to Jeff and Sabrina. We have been praying for these babies and their parents since we first heard there were to be three on the way. We eagerly anticipated their birth and celebrated with their arrival and the subsequent homecoming of each baby as they became healthy enough to leave the hospital.
We are deeply saddened by the loss and I cannot find words to put together to say how devastating this is. There aren't words. There are questions, there is anger, and yet still there is faith. God is good. And, as believers of Jesus we do have the hope of heaven. And, that may sound trite and simple....but in my heart I know it's true.
Isaiah 44:24 (NIV)
"This is what the Lord says---your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the Lord, the Maker of all things, who stretches out the heavens, who spreads out the earth by myself,"
As often as you think of them, please pray for the Hay family. Besides the two baby boys at home they have two young daughters. Lift their burdens up to God and pray for a strength and peace that surpasses all understanding.
Matthew 11:28-30
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
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