A Beautiful Change.

Christmas cards. Check.  As much as I love to create ours to share with our friends and family, the best part of the Christmas card tradition is the collection of cards from others.  I love mail.  Real mail.  I like email, text, Skype, FaceTime, etc. for the convenience the other eleven months of the year and I am thankful for them but real mail is special, something you can hold in your hand. I especially like to gaze upon handwritten notes and signatures (even if its just the return address).  My grandmother is the best about real mail.  She sends cards all the time for all kinds of occasions.  When I was injured I probably received ten.  When my dad went through his whole ordeal, Gra'ma sent him one almost every day.  She's awesome.  But pretty much everyone sends a Christmas card of some sort.  So far I have received three and I put them on our home-made card holder all scrunched up together.  My husband said, " Are you expecting a lot of cards?" to which I replied, "Are you not?".  I understand what he meant though, it was funny to see the three cards all on one end of the card holder but in my mind, I can see it full, bursting with cards- faces of new babies and old friends, pets and Christmas newsletters.  

I keep an electronic copy and a printed version of my Christmas card list.  Throughout the year I do my best to update the written version as friends move or family grows.  Then I go back and plug in the changes to my excel spreadsheet all at once, around this time of year.  This year, there seemed to be a lot of red that represented a lot of change in my friends and families lives.  As I scratched out address after name after address after name and as I added new babies' names or new friends addresses-  I paused to take in the changes.  I paused to respect and remember each family and the race they have run this year.  As my red pen struck through and added and took away, I couldn't help but stop and think about all that happens in the span of a year.  How much change is always upon us.  Sure, there are many good changes, additions to the families of those I hold dear are some of the best!  But there are sad changes too and Christmas happens to be the time we let ourselves think about it.  Why, I wonder...  Maybe it is a blessing.  Maybe it is God's way to speak the truth to us, "This is why I came. This is why Christmas is even a thing.  Christmas is about change".   A change from a society that lives under the law to a community established in grace and mercy.  Christmas, in itself, represents the biggest change that ever occurred.  This is far from what most would say about Christmas. I would agree with anyone that says Christmas is steeped in tradition, not change.  As I reflected on the changes to my list it was clear that the reason we hold our traditions so dear is because we, as Christians, hold this time of year so dear.  We recognize, on some level, the changes represented in us by this holiday.  We celebrate Jesus and the way he came to earth to CHANGE us forever.  Before Jesus was born, our Christmas card was addressed as follows: "To: Rebecca - sinner, slave of sin, condemned under the law….With tough love- GOD".  After Jesus' birth, our card is addressed much differently (thank goodness!) : "To: Rebecca - (still a sinner) - heir, daughter, ransomed, child of God …. Love: Your heavenly Father, your Creator, Prince of Peace, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God."  Enjoy your card from the Lord this year and embrace changes, however hard or wonderful they are, because this is why Jesus came- to walk us through the changes life brings and come out on the other side a new and different soul.  Changed from slaves to sin, to everlasting lives filled with the spirit of righteousness.  What beautiful change. 

Romans 5: 20- 21

"The law was added so that the trespass might increase.  But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. "