Christmas, How Much Does It Cost?

Christmas. How much is it going to cost you this year? Do you know? Or, maybe you’re one of those “last-minute” shoppers who won’t know til the “night before Christmas.” Each year Cecelia and I budget a certain amount we will spend on each other, the four grandchildren, and six additional family members. This way we can plan and attempt to stay within our budget. We have generally spent the same amount each year, but what seemed to be a rather generous gift when we started this process has, like […]

God Is With Us

God is with us! Personalize that idea a bit and say it out loud, “God is with me!”  I don’t know about you, but I assume you are about as human as I am. Any stress in your life? These last several months, and particularly the days leading up to Christmas, have been some of the most stressful I’ve experienced in a long time. Besides the self-imposed pressure of getting my book launched in early spring, I have recently undergone oral surgery to remove a broken tooth, my computer is […]

Love Gives

Love gives.  Christmas is about giving. The Christmas message is about the generous love of God. In a conversation with his nighttime visitor, Jesus speaks of his own birth in a lowly, smelly Bethlehem manger, “For God loved the world so much he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).” In this Advent season, I want to remind each of us to think deeply about how love gives. As we consider the kind of love God gives, it is […]