Month: December 2013

I was reading this article tonight about sex trafficking in Cambodia and mothers who (repeatedly) sell their daughters into prostitution for money.
And it broke me. 
It broke me. 
Oh the depths of this broken, sinful, selfish world. 
As I sat with my phone in hand, reading the article, I cried. I cried hard. I cried because I hate living in a world where things like that can happen. Where a price can be put on a girl’s virginity and where there is a constant demand for it. Where a mother would even consider her daughter’s sexuality something to be exploited, over and over and over. Where sex is a commodity that can be taken by force. Where there is no justice. Where the people who should be looking out for the vulnerable take advantage of them instead.
I begged God to make it stop. 
And then it hit me – this is why we celebrate Christmas. We celebrate Christmas because we remember that God’s perfect Son entered this broken, sinful, selfish world. But He didn’t just come to live in it, He came to save it. He came to save us from ourselves and from the mess we have made of His good creation. 
He came to bring justice, and righteousness, and to make all things new. 
He came to give us a greater hope than anything this world offers.
He came to save us. 
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be there God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
REVELATION 21:1-5

PANCAKES.

photo taken by my lovely friend joy

I’m so blessed to get to spend my Saturdays eating homemade pancakes in a warm home surrounded by some of my closest friends. 
When we can no longer eat any more pancakes and the sleepiness sets in,
 we gather the dishes,
 shake out the tablecloths,
put the folding chairs in their spot in the basement,
take the extra leaves out of the table,
and someone sits down at the piano.
We grab the hymnals
squish onto the couches
and sing.
There is so much love in that house. 

God so loved us that for our sakes he, 
through whom time was made, was made in time;
older by eternity than the world itself,
he became younger in age than any of his servants in the world;
God, who made man, was made man;
he was given existence by a mother whom he brought into existence;
he was carried in hands which he formed;
he was nursed at breasts which he filled;
he cried like a baby in the manger in speechless infancy-
this world without which human eloquence is speechless.

ST. AUGUSTINE