It’s Monday morning.  Life is moving at a slower pace today.  It is 8:45 a.m. and (thankfully) the house is still so quiet.

As I sit here this morning I cannot help reflecting and praying.

I think of a friend who’s son is in routine surgery right now and even though it is perhaps mundane for the doctors, a mother’s heart breaks to see her child in pain.

I think of another friend, a couple from our Sunday school, who will today – and perhaps already have – deliver(ed) their child, their third.  A child who has been washed in prayer by countless saints for healing, for miracles.  But most of all, for God’s will.  I pray for them as they begin an uncertain journey.  I know they would appreciate your prayers as well.

I think this morning of my husband who today celebrates nearly three and a half decades on this earth.  I think of how thankful I am for him, how he is my steady rock and my soft place to fall.  I think of how I don’t ever want to do this life without him and how my life is changed because he was born 34 years ago today.

And I think today of my Savior, whose birth we celebrated with much fanfare and joy and anticipation just two days ago.  I  think of what it might have been like for Mary two thousand years ago.  A two day old son.  Was she just starting to come out of the exhausted fog of birth?  Or was she just entering it?  As she “treasured up all these things and pondered them”, surely she had no idea what lay ahead.  I think of my Lord as a tiny infant.  God, who took on skin and sin, so I might be clothed in righteousness.  Him, who bound up all glory in an earthly tent, to show His faithfulness unto death.

Christmas is past.  As we walk toward the new year, may we keep the heart of Christmas – the wonder, the delight, the thankfulness – at all that He has done, all that He has given.

0977.  fifty degrees on the last day of autumn

0978.  desperate, overwhelming exhaustion

0979.  losing “the list”

0980.  running buddy back on her feet

0981.  Mahner-time for the girls

0982.  client gifts delivered

0983.  shopping DONE!

0984.  geese in flight

0985.  surprise email encouragement

0986.  oreo cookie gifts

0987.  an unexpected gift from a friend

0988.  new blender

0989.  gps that makes 34 deliveries so much easier

0990.  days that will now get longer

0991.  the freedom to sleep in

0992.  Beloved home on Christmas Eve

0993.  family celebrations

0994.  anticipation

0995.  singing Happy Birthday to Jesus

0996.  slow Christmas morning

0997.  leisurely days

0998.  birthday of my best friend

Give praise to the LORD, proclaim his name;
make known among the nations what he has done.
Sing to him, sing praise to him;
tell of all his wonderful acts.
Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.
Look to the LORD and his strength;
seek his face always. Remember the wonders he has done,
his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,
you his servants, the descendants of Abraham,
his chosen ones, the children of Jacob.

~ Psalm 105:1-6

~ Sara