Christmas 2017

Sooo... I feel like Christmas is a blazing train. Once Thanksgiving dinner is tucked away, Christmas season comes rushing in, and before you know it, the trash bin is overflowing with wrapping paper and we are setting New Year's resolutions.

It goes fast.

But this is a season I love to savor. 

This is the season of Emmanuel, a time to remember that God is with us! That's a truth worth slowing down for. So, I pull out my old stories to re-remember Christmases past: the time we had to fly home Christmas Eve, but couldn't go home because the electricity had been knocked out by an ice storm.

That was Christmas 2008.

Then there's the Christmas that was preceded by one of the worst summers of my adult life:
the Christmas of 2009. (It had an amazing end- one of my favorite stories, actually.)

Then there's this year.

This year we've been leaning into Jesus. After moving away from - and back to - Alaska, we poured all our resources into one task: returning to missions. At times, I've felt like Elijah pouring water on the altar so he could call fire down from heaven to lick it up! Life is challenging enough without adding to its difficulties, but here we are. I'm learning that lean times are often open doors to God's provision and care.

At the beginning of the month, we were feeling strained. In spite of Ethan's side jobs and our growing list of ministry partners, we were struggling financially. A friend of ours asked if we like salmon. Of course! They were cleaning out their freezer for deer meat and needed more space, so I headed over to pick up a box of red salmon. Wow!

Later, we visited some friends who moved here this last summer. We decided to share our bounty with them, so I tucked some red salmon fillets and halibut into a cooler as a gift for them. In return, they sent us home with three whole chickens that they had raised and butchered themselves.

Three whole chickens!

In the first couple weeks of December, different friends randomly dropped by to gift us with food. One night, I decided to pull out my scale to weigh what had been given to us. I couldn't weigh the pantry items because those things blend in, but the meat? I pulled all the frozen packages out and set them in a basket on my scale.

Ground deer
Stew meat
A whole turkey
Moose meat
Red salmon fillets
Halibut
Three whole chickens
Cornish game hens

After weighing everything, I added it up: One hundred twenty-five pounds! I was dumbfounded.

Then I headed over to the piano, sat down and played:

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!

  Morning by morning new mercies I see;

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—

    Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

As a family, we sang worship songs for nearly an hour before sending the girls to bed.

A few days later, Ethan attended a night of worship night at church. When he returned later that night, he announced, "I have something to show you. Just let me know when you're ready to cry!"

When he passed me the envelope, I laughed out loud (and then I cried). Someone had gifted us with Christmas money:

I felt undone all over again.

Every year when Christmas season begins, I wonder, What will He do this year? God seems to delight in blessing our family, especially around the holidays. It makes me think, Giving must be God's love language. 

It's very humbling to realize that as much as we have given to God - He always gives more.

You see, we are not God's favorites. I share these stories so you can see: This is what God is like. This is how He cares for His children. What He has done for us, He will do for you. 

I think Psalm 25:3 says it very well:

No one who hopes in you will ever be put to shame.

Which means, when we trust in Him, He will come through! #Noregrets

As we draw closer to Christmas this year, I pray that you will see the beauty of a humble God, one who does not think it beneath Him to put on His serving apron (yet again) to answer our prayers.