Christmas Eve

 We were in Iowa this weekend for Christmas with my family. My parents have been gathering us all together for the past few years to have time together as a family. We were in Okoboji at a hotel with a waterpark, which the kids all love. And we all get time together, which is better than presents.

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We're home for Christmas this year. It started with the Christmas Eve service at church. It's one of my favorite services: candles, carols, the Christmas story, being surrounded by church family, hearing the children sing.

I made some soup and bread for supper. We gathered around the table, lit our Advent candles on our yule log, drank some (non-alcoholic) glogg, and read our Advent devotion for the evening.

We opened one of our family presents: a Ticket to Ride board game. Then, with some Christmas music on the stereo, we tried our new game--which we enjoyed. 

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Over 2000 years ago this night (okay, so it most likely wasn't in December when the first Christmas occurred, but tonight is when we celebrate Jesus' birth) that a young frightened mother and her poor husband were facing a new journey in their lives. It wasn't how they expected their life together to begin.

As Mary felt her first labor pains, she doubtless was scared to be going through childbirth in the midst of a stable--a crude home for livestock was to be where her son, the second person of the Trinity, was to be born. It was not how anyone would have expected God to enter the world, for the King of Kings to make his entrance into humanity.

Yet, on this night, the waiting was over. Love came down. The Savior was born. God became one of us, all because He desires us. He yearns for us to spend eternity with Him. His Son would become our ransom from death, our way to life.

This night changed history. Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.