Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone! Before you read any farther, I'll warn you that this post turned into a bit of a mini Christmas sermon as I was typing it!

In all of the hustle and bustle of Christmas and getting ready for our trip, I realized that I hadn't taken a lot of time to really contemplate the reason for Christmas this year. So, I sat down to write a few of my thoughts. I hope you don't mind me sharing them with all of you! First, in the midst of our adoption, I have thought a lot about how Ariana's birthmother must feel having made the choice to make an adoption plan for her. I thought about how hard it must be for her to be away from her daughter and how selfless she is to choose adoption. That led me to thinking about how God must have felt when He made the choice to send His son here to earth. I realized that it must have been terrible for Him. Even as men rejoiced at the arrival of His Son, He must have been grieving. He knew on that first Christmas all those years ago just what He had sent His Son here to do. He knew as He looked at the Baby lying in a manger, that one day He would have to watch that same Child hang from a cross. He knew all of this, and yet He loved us enough to send Jesus anyway. I don't think I had ever really appreciated just what the gift of Jesus must have cost God until I became a parent. I can only imagine the horror of sending my child into a world where I knew she would be persecuted and die. It makes me appreciate His gift of Jesus even more. I hope all of you have a Merry Christmas and that the real reason for the season remains in all of our hearts year round!