You know, Christmas was over roughly just 2 weeks ago – crazy – seems forever ago and yet it’s not. I still have the tree up, still snacks too. It is nice to sit quiet on the couch now and appreciate the lights and the beauty – the quiet – and appreciate not having to clean up Christmas just yet.  So much work – but worth it! I am SO HAPPY to be on THIS SIDE of Christmas – THANK GOD! It was like a jump over an arbitrary dateline. When my daughter goes back to campus, that’s probably when I will start to de-Christmas, but not yet. Enjoy what did happen. 

Sounds funny to say but I am speculating that God also says ‘Thank God! Christmas is done’ – and ‘Easter is done’ – not the dates but the actions. Thankful His children (we) who hear are saved from sin and death… and I feel certain that Jesus must have felt that relief to “get the job DONE” – to get people back to God by cleansing them with His blood – however painful and however long it took – Thank God It is Finished! Scripture Fulfilled. 

Thanks God for Your Plan. 

But unlike Christmas where some get the urge to rid the decorations out of their sight quickly, to clockwork take that tree down at the appointed hour of moving on, GOD DIDN’T. GOD DOESN’T. GOD LINGERS (for now)… God knows everyone doesn’t know. LINGER. Jesus walked the earth for weeks after rising on Easter. He taught, He connected the dots for confused people whose eyes could only see once God unveiled the fog from their heads. Jesus even asked God to send the Holy Spirit (Who is also God) to come at the appointed time to help the disciples and us to be filled with His mission, His motivation, His movements. God wants us to want more Holy Spirit. 

So, I am not rushing this post Christmas cleaning until the tree is too dry to keep safely. I’m not rushing the new season in, however I do notice that I don’t notice the old newness of Christmas, that’s because we move forward (we have valentines day next a 5 year old told me! A holiday of love, how fitting)… Each day brings God’s new steps… And each day brings us asking for a fresh filling of Holy Spirit. That’s God’s Walking Working Way.

Now we are waiting again – and creation is groaning waiting – for there will be a time that Jesus comes again. Will it be a surprise? Yes. Only God knows. We just have to be ready – and what does that mean? Endurance – Working – Sharing Peace – Spreading the Word. It means it’s NOT OVER, THANK GOD!

It is Finished, but it is not over, and we WAIT. Keep working. Keep walking. Keep watching. Keep loving!

I’m so happy to be on this side of Christmas. I’m so grateful to be on this side of the Cross. I’m grateful for the Holy Spirit to reveal our life IS with God. I’m so blessed we still get to live now. I’m also so grateful to live again… 

(We also wait for the jump to over the grave, don’t rush it but hold His Hand before and after. Holy Spirit help us count our days not waste them away.)

Amen in Him

Amen

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Jesus speaking to the disciples and us before His death (John 14:25-27)

“All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

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Jesus speaking to the disciples and us before His death: (John 16:5-15)

…”but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

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Jesus in Revelation 3:11-13

I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.