The Jumbled Mess

Hi everyone!

I pray that you had a blessed Thanksgiving weekend, and are beginning to catch that Christmas Spirit that wafts through the households of families everywhere at this time of year! I need to apologize, once again. I'm afraid the past several post are quite out of chronological order - I have not yet figured out how to changed the time/date of the posting or to change the order for those times when I decide to catch up on my blog all at once! I need to work on that. So I hope you can simply enjoy the photos and not get too confused by everything!

This Thanksgiving holiday was wonderful, wasn't it? It was nice to have the reminder to give thanks. So many times these days, I find myself spending the majority of my prayer time either confessing or petitioning God. (Or arguing with Him. . . not something I would highly reccomend.) Far too often, I forget to focus on adoration, worship, praise, and Thanksgiving. I took the opportunity this year to think back on the many years of blessings He has lavished upon me.

The one thing I kept coming back to this Thanksgiving was the characteristic of God that we call Love. It shows itself in this - that regardless of how we act, of how often we fail on our end of things, He welcomes us into His arms. He knew the enormity of our sins even before He sent Jesus to us, and yet He sent Him anyways - His only Son - to die a horrid and painful death for a wretch such as me. It's a love that can't truly be understood by our frail, human minds, but is so beautiful to see when we catch even just a glimpse of it. It's what pulls us through those days of darkest despair, and what warms our hearts in those moments of utter joy.

His Love has been shown to me personally in so many ways. Relationships has been a huge way this past Summer and Fall. As the stress and anxiety of a busy life and uncertainty about the future close in, there is always someone there for me. Whether it be my parents, and our long, late night discussions about the meaning of life. . . or my friends, who so patiently sit by and listen to me whine in self-pity, then lovingly and gently point me back to God . . . or God Himself, who beckons me to come and lay my head on His shoulder, leave my cares and worries behind, and entrust myself fully to His care. . . or my brothers and sisters, always good for fun and a hard, wet-your-pants time of laughter. . . or that kindred spirit of mine who graciously forgives my failings . . . or My Jesus, My Father, My Friend.

He loves me. He loves you. Let's be thankful, shall we?

"This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us . . . "

I John 4: 10-12, 16-17a

~Rebekah Grace