Creating Christmas

I had the best intentions of linking up with Aimee for her Christmas ‘scapes party—and I still might eventually!—but life interfered.

After four days of the third (!!) chest cold I’ve had in two months, I went back to school today and dove into the ultra-busy week before Christmas break.

You know the drill: concerts, tests, teacher gifts, secret Santa stuff, crock-pot meals if things are going as planned, grabbing a rotisserie chicken from the deli if they aren’t.

So tonight’s quick post features no tablescapes because the only scape on my tables are piles of books and tissue paper (no wrapped gifts yet) and the debris of daily life.

So how does one actually find peace in this season of peace and good-will?

My favorite Christmas devotional is Jesus, Be in my Christmas, by Sarah Hornsby.  She writes,

“ Jesus explained the secret of entering: The gate is narrow; the gate is Jesus Himself, His body broken and His blood poured out for others….

In order to enter, I must rest form my own work.  As Jesus enters me, He says peace to my heart—to all my struggles to understand, to do what is right, to belong. 

As I come to others with this gift of aliveness, I say to them,

‘Peace.  Because I have received I can give….. Peace to my house this Christmas.  Peace to the houses I enter today and the lives I touch. 

Jesus, be in my entering.”

What  a precious gift that would be for those I love:

Peace to this house.

The peace of Christ lies in His authority over my life, my time, my words—even when all else conspires against it.

So for this evening,

I ignore the flotsam on the coffee table and the grumpy kids, and the undone tablescapes,

and I speak His peace.

Be blessed,

Ginger