Only Wonder Grasps Anything

Yuletide gnomes

Today's the December Solstice, the darkest day of the year, and in a few short days we'll be celebrating the coming of the light of the world - Jesus Christ. In the meantime, our household gnomes are busy preparing to welcome the Christchild with Yuletide cheer.

We've decked an evergreen in glorious lights and beautiful ornaments - for beauty, for joy, for wonder--and as a small reminder of the word from God spoken of by the ancient prophet Hosea:

I am like a green fir tree;
From me comes your fruit.

I'm just like any other person - I have darkness in my heart that I can try to eradicate but will always fail. My only hope is to allow the personal, loving God to shine light into my heart and life, that I might become a more gracious person.

Beauty matters, life has significance, grace travels outside of karma, and at the end of the day justice will be done in the earth, because the only person who has no darkness came to earth, entered the darkness, defeated death by dying, and came back to life in the glorious light of an empty tomb.

The grace to become a beautiful, gracious person is found in Jesus, the ever-living one, whose birth we celebrate with this tree:

note to self (and friends)

Check out these self-publishing sites when you've got some time:

www.blurb.com (requires exclusive use of their software to create content)

www.lulu.com (allows uploading PDF files to create content)

Also, pictures from my Africa trip will eventually be posted online, but I'm not making promises as to when. I've got to finish Christmas preparations first.