december eve

I went for a walk behind the girls on their bikes tonight (Kenna is fast and my camera never caught up.) I noticed bare tree branches and flowers gone to seed -sure signs of coming winter even though my daughter refuses to put away the summer sundress.
Transitions are difficult.

Tomorrow is December. It is Advent. This season snuck up on me so quietly and now threatens to rage past in a whirlwind of activities and shiny new things that won't be shiny anymore come January.

But I want something different. For me, for my family -different.

What is it?

I'm not entirely sure right now, I just know it doesn't fit in a box under a tree. I know it's real and lasting.
It might even be difficult.

Sometimes my sister writes words that speak all the things I don't know how to say. I'm really glad. For instance, "...I was living in a wilderness. I was so desperate for light and newness I decided to post something – a reflection, a prayer, a poem, a scrap of song – every day of Advent.  I knew my own efforts couldn’t make the light dawn any sooner, but I wanted to be ready when it did. I wanted to be there, waiting, with eyes wide open for those first streaks of gold in the eastern sky."

My efforts can't make the light dawn…this strikes deep in my heart for so many reasons. Words fail me.   All I can say right now is that I am waiting and watching. "For with you is light, in your light we see light." (Ps 36:9) I'll be following along with my camera, getting in as close as I can, and I hope you'll join me as Christie is posting every day for Advent.

abundance

"If we complained less and were more thankful, we would be happier, and God would be more glorified. Every day thank God for ordinary mercies- we refer to them as ordinary, and yet they are so priceless that without them we are ready to perish. Let us thank God for our eyes with which we see the sun, for the health and strength to walk around, for the bread we eat, for the clothes we wear.

Let us thank Him that we are not among the hopeless or confined among the guilty; let us thank Him for liberty, for friends, for family associations and comforts. Let us praise Him, in fact, for everything that we receive from His generous hand, for although we deserve little, He provides an abundance."

-Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

autumn light

I went looking for Autumn and found it in my growing babies, in a cotton field, and in the Psalms…

"O Lord, what is man that you regard him, or the son of man that you think of him? Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow." Psalm 144:3-4 (ESV)

Oh, but there's more. In the slanting light and shadows of Autumn we see the world dying, and in the dying, we find hope.  I would love it if you would click over to Pick Your Portion to see more images and the hopeful words found in Hebrews.

Happy Birthday, Marines

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” 
― Ronald Reagan