Deeply Rooted

Luke 2:10     "But the angel said to them: 'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you; You will find a baby wrapped in cloth and lying in a manger"       When I was a kid, the excitement around Christmas time was huge. I remember sitting by the Christmas tree looking at my gifts excited to see what I got each year. I remember dancing and singing to Christmas music. I remember being excited to see what role I got in my church's Christmas play every year. When I was about 7 years old, I got to be Mary which I thought was a BIG DEAL! Mary was Jesus's mom and a big part of his birth. I remember leaving the cookies and milk out. I remember even my dad telling us stories of how he got out of bed one night to see Santa and how he got no presents because he wasn't asleep; despite my excitement of being over a...

     Am I seeing this right? Is there lights in my eyes? Can I read these words on the page? Is that person's face looking blurry? These are questions going through my mind when I think I am getting a migraine. My migraines most of the time start out visual with these disturbances. One thing you can look up on google to get a glimpse into what these visual disturbances may look like is pictures of a migraine aura (not including a picture here because of how closely it does reflect what I and others may experience with migraines). The pictures shown are very close to what they look like for me. They can turn into headaches and body numbness if I don't get to bed right away and take pain reliever.       I remember my first migraine in sixth grade. I did not know it was a migraine then but in seventh grade, I ended up in the hospital and they determined from the symptoms that it was a migraine. I realized then that the weird sickness I had in sixth grade ...

     I realize I am a little late on the advent calendar. Last week was filled with getting finals done and saying goodbye to roommates and friends. Sorry for the late blog, but that for sure is the busy student life. When thinking of peace, I am sure that we all imagine something similar: sitting on a quiet beach watching the waves of water, no noise, just stillness. Is that the reality of life though? The reality of life is that there is noise all around us. Peace is not the same as a manicure with no worries at all or a quiet day on the beach. Peace is not just that. We often want that type of peace, but in my situation assignments get in the way. We desire quiet time with the Lord, and might even see it as peaceful, but family, friends, or the thought of assignments may interrupt that time. I know my biggest struggle when my quiet time gets interrupted is remaining patient and not getting frustrated. I believe that peace though is more than the quiet time we may get w...

          I made an artistic representation of the advent candle for this week, I served in children's ministry, and I thought about what is to come. People often don't like to wait. One big example I can think of something I don't like to wait for is my computer being slow, especially if I have a big assignment due. Waiting with hope is different than waiting in anxiety though. When I wait in hope, there is excitement of what is to come. When I wait in anxiety, I get easily annoyed.      This year, I feel I have this thrill of hope again for the holiday seasons that the song O Holy Night talks about. What I talked about in the last blog was grieving during the holidays. Now I am going to talk about this joy I seem to have found this holiday season. I think that there is joy in knowing that the grief I was feeling would not make it so the holidays would be ruined. Jesus came in a mourning world. Now I can rejoice in the fact that he did come ...