Good Tidings

 Christmas, er New Years, Greetings!

As usual I managed to get out a scant half of my intended Christmas cards, so for those of you who heard nothing but crickets from us this year, I apologize!  Here is what I meant to send out, and it comes now with every bit of good cheer and kind regards that it would have held had it been in an envelope:)
  

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I hope this letter finds you in the thick of the holiday season, deeply enjoying your friends and family and the extra layer of good cheer that seems to settle over the landscape this time of year.
  
This year I thought I’d let the children give you the highlights of their lives in their own words.  
Rebekah, age 20 – It’s been a busy but blessed year!  I am wrapping up my Associate’s Degree at Grand Rapids Community College and am so excited to start the music therapy portion of my degree at Western Michigan University next fall.  

This summer I was able to observe/volunteer with a music therapist at a developmental center and I loved it!  It was so neat to see how the kids were touched by the music and then how I was touched in return!  

About six months ago, I felt God putting foster kids on my heart and I have been praying about how I could use music therapy to reach kids who are in foster care or aging out of the foster care system.  I don’t know where this will lead but know that God does and I trust His plan.  

This year I was also blessed to be able to teach a Challenge B class for our Classical Conversations homeschool group.  I’ve absolutely loved teaching!!  I cover six strands each week: Algebra, Latin, Logic, Debate, Science, and Literature, and I have had so much fun relearning everything with my four students.  I am so thankful for my family, and this year my heart has been moved by God’s faithfulness and amazed by the way He chooses to work in my life. 

Christina, age 17 – This year has been a whirlwind!  It’s my senior year of high school and it’s almost over.  Can I be sad and happy at the same time?  Well according to the “Inside Out” movie, you can! :) For school I’ve been studying Old Testament Theology, Spanish, Biology, World History, Ancient Literature, and Personal Finance/Economics.

I’ve been enjoying my third year of playing viola in the Grand Rapids Youth Symphony. This is my first year in color guard in the West Michigan Homeschool Fine Arts program.  It has been a blast to bring back my ballet experience all while dancing with a flag! I also have had the opportunity to run the nursery of our local CC every Monday, and to volunteer at our local Alpha Women’s Center whenever I get the chance.  

Next year I hope to increase my hours there as well as start an intensive reading program (theology, history, biographies, classic fiction, philosophy) with my dad.  “Gap year” sounds like an empty version of what I have in mind, so I prefer to think of it as a “Super Senior Year”!   

I’m not sure where God will eventually lead me, but I have many interests and I would eventually like to help with the struggles that “aging out” foster kids face in some way.  

This year I’ve been very thankful for all the friendships that God has provided me with through letters, church, and symphony.

Elijah, age 13 – I am thankful for so much. First is no snow this winter!  Second is for my friends and family, and third is for a warm house.  One of my favorite things to do for fun is make up stories in my mind and write them down.  I also love sports.  This year I am in Challenge A for Classical Conversations.  My favorite subject is science.  I research a different topic every week, write about it, and give a presentation.  I play basketball for the Southeast Cougars.  I am the point guard for the Jr. High team.  In the summer I play baseball for Lowell Little League.  Next season I hope to pitch for the Warriors, a travel team.  I love my dog and cat and this season!
  
Isaiah, age 10– This year I am thankful for a warm home and good friends. I like writing funny stories for my CC group. I also like building new things with Legos and reading Popular Mechanics magazine about new inventions. I love studying and drawing cars. My favorite brand of car is a Cadillac. Someday I would like to build or sell cars.
  
Jude, age 8– This year I am thankful for God’s creation. I like to play with my neighbor Dane. I love giving my presentations in Classical Conversations. I like to play basketball outside and my favorite college team is Ohio State and my favorite NFL team is Lions. I like to travel to new places and I like writing to my pen pal Jonah in Uganda. My favorite food is chicken Alfredo.

Kaiden, age 8 – I am thankful for my dog.  I like to play football.  I am looking forward to playing basketball next year.  I want to play every position. I like to build with Play Mobile. I like Classical Conversations and my favorite part is the afternoon class with Christina.

Keira, age 6 – I am thankful for my whole family and our dog and God and Jesus. I like to play on the swings and I like to draw and all my teachers.  In Sunday school I like crafts and I love when Aunt Judy gives me candy at church!  I like to work on letters at Grandma’s. I love to go to Ohio with my family.
  
Sandra, age…well, I have one but we won’t discuss it:)  I am thankful for so much!  For 21 years of marriage to a wonderful, hard-working, God-fearing man.  For the pediatric rheumatology partner God brought to him this year (yay!).  For my family and friends.  For my church.  For the freedom to make the educational decisions that will best meet the needs of my children.  And most of all for my relationship with God, whose power, grace, and love transcends all situations and circumstances.
  
There are many things that have not worked out the way we planned this year—every year, in fact!  Jamey’s health is not what we wish it was.  It may never be.  Our family is not perfect.  Our struggles are real.  They may always be with us.  

We deal with the same set of worries that every couple in our age group does—our parents’ health concerns, our children’s futures, our own entry into the joys of middle age:), the increasing instability of the world around us.  

But the good news is that not one of those things can shake the truth of the gospel and the joy we celebrate this time of year!  

God came down to earth to lift our chins, to pick us up from our worries, heartaches, weakness, and sin, and give us new life in Him.  Oh, the joy of that truth!  It endures even when our earthly expectations disappoint us and the ugly realities of life rub the shine off our dreams.

I’d like to share a little Christmas Story--

It was the first Tuesday evening in December. I had made out my plans for the day and carried them out to perfection.  We were going to have a joyous family evening of songs, cocoa, laughter and decorating.

School was wrapped up and in the bag. Dinner was done early.  The boxes were lined up in the hall.  The kettle was on.  Music was playing.
  
And then Jamey came home from work.  Sick. Again.

I bundled him off to the couch, hushed the children, and we began.  OK, I thought.  We can still salvage this night.  We WILL have Christmas spirit!  It’s not the same without Jamey, but we can still have fun.

And almost immediately there was fighting. 

And no one listened to my instructions. 

Decorations were flying up, pictures and knick knacks were coming down, and my inner Martha Stewart was beginning to twitch.  In the chaos we forgot to walk the dog--who then proceeded to firehose my favorite Swedish rug.  In my panic to MAKE IT STOP, I let him out without his leash on.  

Naturally, he saw his chance and bolted off into the pitch black night, which made my younger children start screaming, at which point I slammed the door and angrily blurted out that I HOPED he got lost. 

Suddenly it got very quiet, and I could feel the last of the good cheer slip out of the room.
   
Upset with the dog and disappointed in myself, I stalked into the living room and peevishly began clearing off the top of the bookcase (in order to make way for baby Jesus and the nativity, of course).   

Because I was working in a *hasty* manner, I grabbed Jude’s fishbowl too roughly and it fell from my fingers.  

Onto my couch.  

Stinky water and slimy rocks poured out over my cushions and pillows, the bowl crashed onto my coffee table, and Jude’s precious birthday fish skittered under the couch to join the dust bunnies and abandoned Legos that live there year round.
  
It was while I was lying on my stomach in fish-water, with my dog-pee-soaked feet in the air and my arm jammed up to my neck under the couch, groping blindly for a small blue fish as my children stared at me in wide-eyed horror, that both the humor and the sadness of the situation struck me.
  
Very rarely can I control all of the circumstances in my life, even with the best of plans!  The only thing I can control is my reaction to those circumstances.  I can let the tyranny of my expectations poison my reality, or I can graciously bend to accommodate it. 

Most importantly, as a Christian I am in possession of something that cannot be tainted by ugly surprises of any kind—if only I choose to remember it!
  
2 Corinthians 4:6-10 states, “God, who said, ‘Let there be light in the darkness,’ has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

“We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.

“We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.”

So I guess I just want to say (to you and to myself), remember that even if your advent was clouded by loneliness or uncertainty this season, or if none of your festive plans saw the light of day--or if the best memory you made this December was the dramatic rescue of a little boy’s fish from beneath a filthy couch (yes, it lived!) try to see it all through the eyes of faith.  

Because this is true:  The Good God, Creator of the Universe, came down to give us joy that doesn’t rely on happy circumstances, peace that isn’t dependent on peaceful surroundings, and love that will go on forever and ever.  Amen!  

May we all know this and know HIM better and better over the coming year.  Merry Christmas!

Isaiah 9:6

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.