Home for the Holidays

Oh it's a strange feeling.

Just the other week I was so excited to leave school. But was I really? Maybe ready to be done with finals but not leave my friends. It all happened so fast. The last football game of the season, Christmas parties and gift exchanges, studying for hours on end, seemed to all run into each other, and then before I knew it- we were all packing up our things and didn't even get to have one last meal together.

So then I packed up what seemed like everything in my room, to come home for an entire month. AN ENTIRE MONTH. Going from being around people 24/7 to being home alone with almost nothing to do can't be healthy. It's also really weird being told what to do by my parents and having them always knowing what I'm doing and where I'm going. Feels like I've suddenly been cut off from all freedom I'd just gained in the past four months. And with the days feeling like they've been ending before I can even get anything done has really put me in a funk. Also, since I've moved 45 minutes away from all of my friends from home- it really has been a challenge to feel like I'm at "home."

And Christmas- does it really even feel like Christmas this year? With all the stress of buying things for friends and family, the only thing I feel like I'm about to be celebrating is the end of this shopping madness. But you know, in the midst of all this chaos it's my first time learning about Advent ( I've been reading Good News of Great Joy by John Piper) -- what Christmas is all about- Jesus coming to be amongst us and to save us. It's the time leading up to the first day of the greatest love story ever. It has been so amazing to see Christmas for what it truly is. Now Christmas itself is a gift to me, from my creator, my Father, and my savior. And I am so unworthy of it.

But the Lord didn't just come for those who already believed, he came for you, and for me, and for every one. He came to save us from our emptiness and brokeness, & to make us whole and give us a purpose. & knowing all of this I can see coming home from college in a new light. It is time for rest from all the stress of school work, to really spend time with the Lord, and to celebrate his willingness to come down from glorious Heaven just to be with us & show us the way in this broken world.