Joy

"Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy"  1 Peter 1:8

Little Noah has been nothing but joy over the past two weeks.  He almost always has a smile on his face, or one that's easy to get out of him.  I have laughed so much at him: I didn't think that a little baby could be so much fun!

What an awesome precursor to the joy of Christmas!   While I can only imagine the joy of the angels or the shepherds or Mary and Joseph, I am thankful for the joy that God has graciously given to my heart this Christmas season.  Even though I have not seen the baby Christ with my own eyes, I have the joy of knowing that he chose to come into the world to save sinners like me.  

Merry Christmas!

Thanks

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

his love endures forever.

Psalm 106:1

It seems as though a whole season has passed since I last had a moment to reflect.  Amid the baking, cooking, eating, dish washing, game playing, and madhouse shopping of last week, I was able to squeeze in a few moments with my husband in which we listed off the many things we have to be thankful for.


The obvious things showed up on the list, of course.  And a lot of people I talked to over the course of the week said things like, "Oh, you have a house to be thankful for!"  or  "Your first Thanksgiving in your new home--it will be so special."  But the things that I'm really thankful for have nothing to do with the new house or with the food that was on the table or anything like that.  


I realized that I'm thankful for the intangible, the stuff I can't put my hands on.  Even as I write these words, I can't properly describe the depth of thankfulness I have for the man I love and the little boy we can call our own.  Each night, I thank the God who made the heavens that he has granted me one more day to spend with Dave and Noah.  And the thing that I can't seem to wrap my mind around is this: that the love of the Father, his grace and mercy, is so much more special than even these.