secrets

In that day there will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, "HOLY TO THE LORD " Zech. 14:20

Breathe deeply. 

You have now prepared for Christmas and are now ready to receive, and participate in, the celebration of it.  Christmas is not only an event, it is the spirit of generosity and deep, abiding joy. 

No matter where you are in the world, Christmas is a special time.  I have been in the Dubai airport in United Arab Emirates and enjoyed the decorative red and gold lights whispering of the coming Savior. There are beautiful surprises that are hidden our traditions; they explain this holiday’s meaning.  Even the pagan celebrations involve an element of a hidden treasure inside of an obvious gift – but we Christians hold the truth.  

It is an amazing privilege entrusted to us - to be bearers of so great a  secret.  

I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles,
Isaiah 42:6

All year long we can whisper of it, but Christmas is the time we can sing it out loud.

He is here, He is here…

The Messiah that we have been waiting for has arrived!  He was promised from the beginning of time and He is the perfect plan of God.  Jesus was born because everyone needed a Savior from our condition of sin.  

Here’s the secret: He is the perfect representation of God.  God invested himself into us, into mankind.

Because of Christ Jesus, the Messiah, we are reconciled to God, our heavenly Father.  He was born in lowly and humble circumstances, and gave us an example of how we should live.  No matter how much wealth we can accumulate it is nothing compared to heavenly glory, which is what He left to become incarnate. 

Love. Humility. Adoration. Joy.

The life we are now living is lit up by a Redeemer who came to us to fulfill a promise.  All other gifts are nothing in comparison to this one; all other joy is dependent on this. 

Merry Christmas!!

again?

Yes.  This is it.  My disorganized paper.

A few days ago I blogged about staying humble in school, which was a mistake.  I should have known that the moment I published that blog I’d be challenged to put my proverbial money where my flipping proverbial mouth was. 

So today I hacked away at my keyboard  as I re-wrote a paper for my freshman composition class.  I had handed it in and my professor handed it back to me, saying that it wasn’t organized properly.  He later lectured, saying that if anyone in the class thought they were an artist they should keep that to themselves and just do the assigned work properly. Then he looked over at me… and I flashed him a dirty look.

Before I get carried away with bagging on my professor, I have to confess that I can be a complete eye-rolling jerk in that class.  We are assigned simple projects, with very short word counts.  Much of our class time is filled with lessons about grammar, which I could probably teach myself (oh, yeah… I gotta stay humble).  My professor takes the class seriously and has to deal with a lot of dishevelment, but I was planning on being his favorite student.

After all, I love writing.  I should ace freshman composition, shouldn't I?

Today I re-worked the assignment... and I found out that he was right.  My essay was poorly organized.  It was pretty interesting and well-written, but poorly organized.   It lacked a good thesis sentence and it didn’t have clear paragraph introductions.  I thought I could get around those requirements if I just used my great writing skills.

It was then when I realized that great writing skills usually include organization.  Damn.

So… I re-wrote it and I’ll turn in my corrected assignment on Tuesday, a week after the rest of the class.  When I told Mario my sad story, he just smiled.

“I got an ‘A’ in freshman composition,” he said.  I could see his cute dimples, but I crossed my arms in front of me.  “But, then again, my teacher liked me.”

*sigh* 

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