Snow Balls

Living where I do this may be the only time I have snow, that is why I took the picture. These little things are on my Chinese Tallow Tree and I wonder, if you can make candles from these seed pods. It is something I will have to try sometime.
I am trying to yank my mind into Christmas so today I am going to share something I read that blessed me and gave me pause to think about why we do rejoice at this time of year.

God Came Near

We must be careful lest we romanticize the birth of Christ beyond reality. Nativity scenes have a way of making Jesus's birth unreasonably fairy-tale like. What Jesus really endured in becoming a human being was to enter this world of harsh reality. Here in the mist of an inhuman humanity,
he navigated existence to show us all the way.
She looks into the face of the baby. Her son, Her Lord, His Majesty. At this point in history, the human being who best understands who God is and what he is doing is a teenage girl in a smelly stable. She can't take her eyes off him. Somehow Mary knows she is holding God. So this is he. She remembers the words of the angel. " His kingdom will never end."
He looks like anything but a king. His face is prunish and red. His cry, though strong and healthy,
is still the helpless and piercing cry of a baby.
Majesty in the mist of the mundane. Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat. Divinity entering the world on the floor of a stable through the womb of a teenager and in the presence of a carpenter.
---Max Lucado---

When I was four, I moved out to live on this land, with my grandparents. I was fortunate enough to live in a place where the people before us were farmers. In one of the small barns was a manger. I had heard the story about baby Jesus and when I saw that manger, all I could think of was putting my doll in it and pretending it was baby Jesus. So I cleaned it out, and put in some hay and put in my doll and wrapped her up. I remember thinking about what a cold place to put a baby and the place smelled of cows. I would sit on the fence and look down at my doll in the hay and I would think about why on earth would any parent put a baby in a manger? I still sit and ponder about God becoming a baby, and it amazes me still.

Happy Thursday!