A Night’s Pause … A Morning’s Grace

*Note: update on winners below.

 I am awake this morning. Earlier than I want to be. I could have used a few extra hours of sleep, but my dreams took a turn for the worse and forced my notice …
“You are better than this, Elaine. You don’t have to go there.”
“But I want to, Lord, just for a few moments.”

“You can make that choice, daughter. But in doing so, realize that you don’t travel this road unaccompanied. You travel it with me and with my knowing.”

And with that brief exchange, I am undone, as I remember my grace and just exactly what price was paid for its rightful place in history. No dream or action rendered accordingly is worth the blood that was shed on my behalf.

Dreams.

They are our occasional portion. We don’t ask for them. They simply find us. Dreams give us some limited permission to flesh out the unspoken seedings of our heart. For good or for ill, dreams allow us walks down roads we might not otherwise journey. Roads that are sometimes welcome; roads that are sometimes better left untraveled.

The latter has been my swallow this morning. In the moment and as it played itself out on the stage of my unconsciousness, it tasted sweet. But unconsciousness quickly turned to conscious awareness, and with that discovery, I had a choice to make—

To nurse the dream with thoughts of action or to surrender its hold to the cross of Jesus. And while others might voice their “let it go” and “it’s just a dream”…

I know better. What surfaces in the night can quickly become the sin that plagues the heart and the mind during the day. Better to surrender quickly. To confess and to allow grace its rightful place in my heart. Hardly seems fair; after all, I didn’t go to bed asking for a forgotten desire to rouse from its designated grave and to sing her song onto the stage of my thoughts. I went to bed with Jesus on my mind and with his song in my heart.

An odd coupling—Jesus and my sin. But then again, maybe not. Maybe just exactly as this life was meant to walk. My sin … his notice.

Why do I tell you this? Why do I cloak myself with a brilliantly bright computer screen in this dark hour to pen my confession?

In part, because confession is good for the soul. Bringing a night’s pause into the light diffuses the mystery of sin’s grip.

In greater part, because I want you to realize that for all of the ways that my life breathes with the witness and understanding of Jesus Christ, there remains a thorn of sorts. A portion of selfish flesh that continues to work itself out in me. Sometimes great. Sometimes small, but nevertheless still present. Still nagging. Still requiring my surrender and my increasing thankfulness for God’s grace that simply covereth.

I imagine that these fleshly thorns of mine will continue their prick. For as long as I tarry in this frame, there remains a tension between my earthly cloaking and my heavenly one. Remember God’s Plow and My Longing?

But in this moment, in this hour as the sun begins its approach to my soul, the thorn pricks less … bleeds less and reminds me that the battle hasn’t been lost in the night. It began there, but it finishes with the reminder of a sun’s illumination—a Son’s Light—and I am forever grateful for another day to be a better person.

To make better choices and to grow in my faith and understanding of all things sacred.

I don’t know how this strikes you today. I don’t know if anyone needs the witness of my penned confession. But if my feelings serve me correctly (for there are many occasions when they serve me incorrectly and to my contrary…), I imagine that there is some worth in bringing their voice to paper. Thus, I offer my heart and my pen and ask God to use them both as only he can.

For his glory. For his gain. For his grace that bled and shed its portion so that we could rise above our flesh and walk in victory over our sin.

It’s a good day to walk with Jesus, friends. I don’t know how your agenda reads, but I plan on squeezing in a lot of Christmas preparations around my thoughts of him.

An odd coupling—Christmas preparation and Jesus. But then again, maybe not. Maybe just exactly as this life was meant to walk. My preparation … his arrival. Thus I pray,

Come, Lord Jesus, and illuminate my heart with the truth of your grace. Thank you for a night’s pause and for the witness of your cross even there … in the midst of my dreaming and my thinking that sin cannot find me. It did, but so did you, and I am humbled by your willingness to meet me and challenge me with the higher road. In this moment, I choose better. When the next moment arrives, prick my heart with the same awareness of my “now” so that my path walks higher and greater and beyond where I am today. Thank you for Calvary. Thank you for Christmas. Grace and Expectation. An extraordinary gift to me in this morning. Amen.

Copyright © December 2008 – Elaine Olsen. All rights reserved.

~elaine

Congrats to Sassy Granny, Yolanda, and Debbie for winning a copy of Sara Grove’s O Holy Night Cd. Girls, please email me your snail mail so that I can get it to you in quick order. Shalom.

 

The Increasing Truth

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.” (Isaiah 9:6-7).

 

In a world seemingly content with its fluctuation between hot and cold and highs and lows, and with a Christmas season that houses a propensity for the same, I need some truth. Hot and cold is not my preference. The shifting sands of uncertain seasons prickle my spirit with discord and blanket my flesh with a fresh dose of frenzy. Be it the political arena, the stock market, international unrest, or the changing “wish lists” for Santa on the home front, I need a hope. A fully substantial truth that will sustain me through this season and into the next.

Finding the real and what’s true amidst the wrappings of a temporal flux rarely surfaces by accident. Truth’s finding comes through intention. Through a deliberate focus that refuses the chaos and, instead, accepts the responsibility to chart one’s course accordingly. To slice through the wrappings and the trappings of a decorated peace in order to find the pure, unadulterated truth that breathes raw and undefiled and full of the living, breathing pulse of heaven.

Truth is our needful portion and to arrive at its core, we must be willing to break pace with the world’s cadence—a rhythm that is leading to our quick and certain suffocation. Time to cut the junk. Cut the flap. Cut the verbiage that so willingly spews its polished spin so as to make “all that currently is” an easier swallow. Just give it to me straight, for I am bit weary from the strain of making “all that currently is”… make sense. I simply and profoundly need…

simple and profound.

Thankfully, the prophet Isaiah is willing to afford me both.

He tells me about the promised Son. About a Wonderful Counselor, a Mighty God, an Everlasting Father, and a Prince named Peace. Lingering in the truth of our Savior’s multi-labeling is enough to wrap my weary into a manageable portion. After all, who couldn’t use some of God’s counseling and mighty and everlasting peace in this season?

But Isaiah takes it further. He tells me something more about my Jesus. Something so simply profound that I often miss it in favor of his divine labeling.

My Savior’s kingdom and his peace are on the rise.

“Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.”

Never once have they diminished, even though the world continues to offer its voice to the contrary. With every passing moment since Bethlehem’s arrival, the weight of our Savior’s cloaking has increased. The government that rests upon his shoulders is bigger now than it has ever been—2000 years and counting worth of increase.

No matter the critics. No matter the chaos. No matter the sin. No matter all manner of fluctuations that breathe with the only certainty that life is uncertain. Hot and cold is of little influence when it comes to Christ and his government.

It’s growing. With every passing day and in wild and unimaginable ways, our Father’s peaceful “kingdom come” is coming closer, pulsing louder, and feeling the weight of a full gestation. What is soon to be birthed will far exceed our understanding. We cannot see it now. Our world is filled with clouded confusion. But we will see it soon. Until then, of this we can be sure.

The length and width and height and depth of God’s loving and lavish conclusion will blanket the earth with the simple and profound truth of what’s been growing all along.

His increase. Every time…

A prayer is whispered.
His Word is read.
His name is spoken.
An offering is made.
A hymn is sung.
A child imagines the Sacred.
An adult imagines the same.
A sinner bows.
A prodigal returns.
A surrender is made.
A tear is tendered to throne.
A deed is done in God’s name.
A heart believes.
A mustard seed is planted.
A miracle breathes.
A miracle waits.
An altar is filled.
The truth is felt.
The truth is spoken.
The truth is lived.

Every day, in chosen and in unseen ways, our Savior’s kingdom increases. And lest we think otherwise, lest we are tempted to believe that hell is gaining the upper hand, let us remember that where and when sin increases, grace increases all the more (Romans 5:20-21).

We stand on the winning side. God’s increase is on the rise. Always. His is not a decreasing kingdom but rather one of a lush and gaining abundance. And that, dear friends, is the pure, unadulterated truth that I need this season. He is the Anchor I can hang my hope on for always.

Long ago, I cast my lot with God’s kingdom. I’ve not always witnessed the increase in my own walk of faith, but I am certain of his. And somehow that frees me from the burden of needing to see it all up front. When I cannot imagine the wealth and bounty of this one moment, he can. He does. He carries it with him wherever he goes, from Bethlehem to now and into the great, wild beyond.

That is substantial. That is the Truth. That is, simply and profoundly, all this heart needs to know to make “all that currently is”… make sense. Thus I pray,

When I cannot see your increase Lord, remind me of your shoulders and your weighty worth that allows you to carry the unseen treasures of your coming kingdom. Thank you for a glimpse of the imponderable … for an imagination that imagines such beauty and for the faith to believe it most certain. Carry me there, in the middle of your abundance, on your shoulders and as your prize. Forgive me when I am tempted to limit your increase by visioning less and by believing less. You are more and big and beyond the articulations of my understanding. Keep me in captive awareness of your hugeness, and let your growing peace be my portion in this season. How I love you more for allowing me your profound amidst my simple. Amen.

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How’s your season unpacking, friends? I’d like to unpack it a little further with a prize or two. Just leave a comment, and I will surprise you by week’s end. Also, if you have a special need or prayer request, please feel free to email me or leave it in the comment section. I would love to pray for you this week. Shalom.

Come, Tarry, Go

“‘If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.’ The mouth of the LORD has spoken.” (Isaiah 58:13-14).

I remember the moment … as vividly as it breathed when I was five. I leaned over to my mother and asked her to read me the words that were beyond my articulation—three little words etched at the base of the stained-glass cross which adorned the front of our sanctuary.

“Come. Tarry. Go,” she replied. “It means you come, you stay awhile, and then you leave.”

I feel the warmth of her breath in this moment of recall. Those words and that cross have shadowed my steps ever since. I felt them profoundly today, as I participated in a doing I’ve been doing for my entire life. A doing that has carved me … etched me … filled me with the significance of my sacred worth. A doing that sometimes requires …

faith over feeling.
mind over matter.
willingness over weariness.

Today, my feet pilgrimed to God’s house for a Sabbath observance. Not because I felt like it; my feelings would have left me as I was—in bed and nursing a cough and sore throat that, perhaps, warranted my absence. No, this morning’s arrival at my church had nothing to do with my flesh and everything to do with my feet’s submission to a heart’s obedience.

Today, I walked to Jesus. Intentionally and dressed in my best simply because he is worthy. Any other half-hearted attempt at honoring him would be just that—half-hearted and less than and a whole lot like the world’s painting of a Sunday’s worth. A worth that levels toward self-soothing and doing as one pleases, rather than regarding the better necessary–that which leads a heart to worship.

And therein lies the seeding of my nearly four decades’ worth of faith.

What pleases me is doing what pleases God. And what pleases God is my honoring of him. My recognizing of his relevant and extravagant grace and how far it has traveled on my behalf. To a cross where he willingly came, sacrificially tarried, and resolutely departed once love’s redeeming work had walked its course.

His pause at Calvary means everything to me. The longer I walk with Jesus, the more I understand the depth of his gift. I didn’t understand it at five years old. I’m not sure I fully understand it now, but lingering in the shadow of the cross compels me to make the journey. Not because it needs my reverence, but rather because I need its reminder.

Thus, I come to the cross on Sundays. I tarry beneath its lavish grace that allows me my remembrance and that fuels my going forth in the week that lies ahead.

It’s not overly profound, and to some, it might seem rather perfunctory. Rather routine and packed with obligation, but when I consider what’s been wrought on my behalf, how foolish would I be to act to the contrary? To choose my pleasing over God’s pleasure? To walk as if my honor is worthy of more homage than his?

Doing life with Jesus has always been my privilege. It’s been yours too, but all too often, our gratitude walks in stark contrast to grace’s dispensation. Instead of finding our footing at Christ’s feet, we allow our flesh the wisdom to walk its intelligence. The problem with fleshly “wisdom” is that is will always choose self over the sacred—my pleasing over God’s.

And when a Sabbath day begins to look like every other day, when we refuse to give a moment’s tarry to the One who tarried long and deliberate in our stead, then we have not only forsaken our first love, but we have robbed ourselves of the rightful inheritance that is ours as children of the living God.

Jesus Christ.

He is our lasting and very great reward (Genesis 15:1). Spending time with him in intentional and deliberate worship is never wasted. It’s life-giving and heart-changing and moves our faith into a deeper place of obedience and understanding. Coming to the cross and tarrying with our Father in his truth, enables our go—our moving on and our moving out to spread the witness of his love. Without such pause, our lives breathe void of the power that comes from contemplated remembrance.

Today I remembered. I walked to God’s house, alongside my family, and took time to hear my mother’s words ringing in my ears even as they did in my long ago and far away. They still sing true. They still whisper fresh. They still and will forever be the remembrance of grace that shadows my steps until I reach the throne of heaven and sit at my Father’s feet for always.

Come. Tarry. Go.

A worthy obedience. A worthy Reward. Thus I pray…

Thank you, Father, for a Sabbath’s pause that allows me your gracious remembrance. Forgive me when I deem “my pleasing” as more substantial than yours. Yours fuels my forever with the only truth that seeds everlasting. May my coming and my tarrying always reflect the deep grace that I have known, and may my going always reflect my attending therein. Thank you for the cross, for love’s redeeming work, and for your Son’s obedience to both. And thank you for parents who took me to church, who filled my heart with the witness of your love, and who spoke the truth of a stained glass cross with every stepped submission of their journey. You graced me much when you gave me their arms. Amen.

Copyright © November 2008 – Elaine Olsen. All rights reserved

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The New World

The New World

“However, as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’—but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).


Not long ago, I sat down to watch Elizabeth: The Golden Age. The story is well-known to many but fairly new to me. I’m not a history enthusiast, although I am drawn to its memoirs via the silver screen. There’s something majestic and grand about visiting another era. When crafted well, “period pieces” etch their eccentricity into my soul, leaving me breathless for more.

The intrigues of yesterday’s “long-ago and far-away” are a worthy pause. They reveal truth by framing the past within the present. They trace our ancestral beginnings to our now, weaving a path of incomprehensible moments that lead us to this one moment in time. A day called today, when every yesterday bears the worthy trust of a purpose and a plan.

We couldn’t see it then because we didn’t live it then. Our lives were meant for this generation, but we are the witnesses to what remains—those blossomed remnants from a long-ago seeding that have fed our imaginations and scripted their influence into our current. Whether it be 500 years ago or five days ago, the past hosts the stage for the right now … for the future.

In one particular moving scene from Elizabeth, the Queen is listening to the wild rantings of explorer extraordinaire, Sir Walter Raleigh. He is describing the depth of what it was like for him to discover the new world. The tempestuous seas. The brittle cold. The weary nights and days and days and nights of water upon water with no land in sight. His is a compelling story, crescendoing with every detail until he unveils the moment of his discovery—the virgin vision of land in sight.

It is an edenic moment, one that scripts with the lush and green and wild of a fresh unearthing.

Elizabeth is undone with the telling, imagining the far-away and what it must be like to live within the edges of such adventure. With tears brimming from emotion, she voices the penchant of her heart…

“Do we discover the new world, Mr. Raleigh, or does the new world discover us?”

And with that question, I am undone. It’s a worthy wondering, for before me … before each one of us … is a brave, new and unseen world offering up its invitation to come. To set our sails in a new direction that is fraught with the unknown and the unimaginable.

Who can really plan for a sea’s crossing in advance? Who can measure the depth of the dark and the waves and the ill-effects of climate shift prior to departure? Who can reason the sun’s heat and thirst of a long journey? Who can forecast the wide open skies of a sea’s starry night or the brushstrokes of a horizon’s morning? Who can fathom the ups and the downs and the side to sides of a watery perimeter? Who can fully comprehend the completed journey even before it begins? Who can see the new world prior to leaving the old?

Who indeed?

God can. He did, and he continues to do so. On our behalf and on behalf of those who’ve come before and those who are soon to follow. He sees it all, from beginning to end—the new world. It commenced on the shores of his sacred understanding; it will finish accordingly. But sandwiched in between those eternal bookends?

A sea’s crossing. A journey’s now. From coast to coast, where faith becomes the wind that sails us home into safe harbor.

Do we discover the new world, or does the new world discover us?

Yes and yes.

It’s not that it hasn’t been there all along. Its shores have always sung. Its land has always known the generous breathing of a big and mighty God. Its width and length and heighth and depth have been measured and established by the wisdom of its Creator and sustained accordingly. The inconceivable has been conceived by the only mind capable of holding such vision.

And if we, by the grace of God, have set our sights on Jesus, then with every passing day, in unsuspecting and unimaginable ways, we catch glimpses of the harbor that stands on the horizon. A reachable Eden that scripts with the lush and green and wild of a fresh unearthing.

The new world and us. An unlikely coupling. A joint discovery on both counts. Together, a profound weaving that breathes and brims with unending possibility and with the breathless yearning for more.

More adventure.
More edges.
More moments.
More risks.
More faith.
More discovery.

More nights of stars and days of horizons, piece by piece until we arrive on the shores of the new world, and we trade in our weary remnants for the full dressing of our forever.

Who can fathom the worth of such a journey? I am compelled to try, for long ago and far away, in another era it seems, God’s love called out his invitation for me to come. A “period piece” from my history that etched its eccentricity into my soul. I’ve been sailing its waters ever since. It’s been a worthy row, friends, and one that is drawing me ever closer to my discovery of the new world. I bet you could voice the same. May God keep us, everyone, to the journey until we land in the seen reality of our unseen and wild imaginings. It won’t be long, thus I pray…

Bring us home, Father God, into safe harbor with you. Keep our eyes fixed on the horizon instead of the sea that seeks to drown our faith in the process. Thank you for the process of discovery and for the vision that you’ve seeded in our hearts for the inconceivable realities that you conceived on our behalf long ago. Your grace is the unimaginable gift that allows us participation in the new world. It leaves me breathless and with a heart of thanksgiving for the life I’ve been allowed. Keep me grateful. Keep me mindful. Keep me moving forward, straight into your arms. Amen.

Copyright © November 2008 – Elaine Olsen. All rights reserved

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Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! I will be traveling this week and plan on stepping away from the computer for a few days. Enjoy some turkey and some fellowship with family and friends. I am thankful for you, my blogging companions, who have spent the better part of 9 months on the journey with me. What a joy to share this road with pilgrims like you! I mean that. Shalom.

A Golden Moment…

A Golden Moment…

I know this post is a bit pre-mature. With Thanksgiving at the door, an Advent post might seem hasty to some. But here’s the deal I made with God several months ago. He challenged me to spend my words as they come. Not to hoard them or store them up for a better day; that better day is today. Tomorrow is not promised to me or to you. Thus, I give you this post as it has arrived. I didn’t intend to write it; it simply wrote me and will probably end up being the family Christmas letter this year. I’m not sure I will be able to improve upon it in the days to come. May these simple thoughts be a point of beginning for you as you ponder the sacred worth of a Bethlehem pilgrimage. They are my gift to you. Peace for the journey, friends. Walk it well and find your Peace.

I had one of those rare moments yesterday. A moment that spins golden and breathes pure. A moment that is often easily missed if eyes and minds are focused otherwise. Fortunately, my eyes and heart were prone for the whispers of a better focus—

baby girl, asleep on the couch.

She really isn’t a baby anymore. She is six years old, but as my only “pink” in line behind three “blues,” she will always hold the title as my baby.

Rarely does she sleep during the day. She’s outgrown such habits, but yesterday’s quiet and the drone of the television lulled her into a late afternoon nap. Everyone else was somewhere else, and I was busy at the computer. When I hadn’t heard from her in a while, I went into the living and found her curled up on the couch. Instead of rousing her from her slumber, I gently picked up her frame and cradled her on my lap.

She barely noticed and continued with her ruffled breathing for the better part of an hour. I simply listened and held and prayed and cried some tender tears for the moment. It won’t be long before my cradling of her tiny body will be beyond my reach. Literally. But her heart? Always within reach. Always fit for my cradling, my holding, my praying, and my tears of celebratory and unwavering love.

She’s a gift to me. I never imagined her. As a single mother of two young sons, I never imagined much beyond my survival. But then Billy. And then the gift of a third son. And then a friend who jogged by my house one afternoon. She didn’t normally stop mid-jog, but that day she did. I answered her knock, and she boldly proclaimed to me that God had strongly spoken a word into her spirit while passing my house. God would give me another child. I laughed and said “thank you”… sort of.

I wasn’t planning on another child. We were working on sealing that deal when I began to notice a shift in my body. Something was going on. Baby girl was going on and, now, six years down the road, I am the better for plans gone awry. Plans that exceed my wisdom, my desires, my focus and my calendar. God interrupted my life with Amelia, and my heart (already so full to the brim with love for my family) ripped open once again to receive the gift of a daughter.


There was room enough to love a little pink, and just yesterday, I was reminded of the sacred privilege that I’ve been given to be her mother.

She’s growing so fast. So good and so full of fresh perspective. I see her take to her Jesus even as I took to him at her young age. She exceeds the Christian talk. She’s walking her Christian talk. And last night, as witness to the stirrings of her heart, she made a picture for me. It reads,


“I love Jesus. Jesus is the star. Jesus is the best! He rocks. He is the baby. He is the son of God.”

In her tiny, fragile, six-year-old way of understanding, my daughter weaves a pretty stable theology, don’t you think? It speaks of her love for the baby who shines as the Star of her stage. Not just any baby, but God’s Son who came to rock the world with his “best-ness.” Amelia “gets” her Jesus.

Her words are simple. Her faith is growing, and her heart remains, for the most part, untainted by the world’s insistence to the contrary. There will come a day for hurts … for her questions and for some unbelief. But right now, Jesus rocks. He’s the best thing she’s got going on, and she isn’t afraid to allow him some praise via her pen.

She’s teaching me … to use my pen to script his praise. It’s not always easy to be taught “faith” through the simple of a child, but I think, perhaps, our propensity toward making faith a difficult road could use a swift and prolonged detour to a couch and to the whispers of a younger season when innocence ruled the day.

There’s too much crowding in our lives, friends. We are concerned about a great many things while neglecting the tender pull of our heart strings. We long for life to sing its beauty, but rarely are we willing to pause for a listen. Beauty has never been absent. She has always been singing her song. But us? We have perfected our absence. We choose it every time we decide…

on busy over the best.
on chaos over the calm.
on computers over the couches.
on schedules over the sacred.

We miss the loveliness of a moment because moments can sometimes breathe so singular. So set apart and so seemingly unnecessary as it pertains to the whole.

Shame on us for not thinking that a single moment can change everything.

Single moments are the stuff of eternity. Single moments shape and sharpen and hone a heart for hugeness. Single moments breathe with the promise of a grander epic. Single moments collect and gather to form a destiny that exceeds the temporal and the seen.

I had one such moment yesterday. A single pause that spun golden. I held a child in my arms and knew that my life has been and will always be better because of the holding.

Over 2000 years ago, there came a moment that spun golden for another mother and her child. Months earlier, a friend of sorts stopped by her house and spoke a word of witness into her spirit.

“But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.’” (Luke 1:30-33).

A single moment. The stuff of eternity, and we are all the better for the holding of the Child.

In just a few weeks, we’ll relive that golden moment. Some of us travel to the manger with our reluctance. Some with our desperation. Some with our baggage. Some with our eager expectation, and a few rare of us, with our peace. We pilgrim to Bethlehem for various reasons. But for one little girl named Amelia, and one big girl named Elaine, we’re walking to the stable for one reason alone.

To glimpse God’s best. To witness the Son who has rocked our worlds with his arrival into our hearts. To give our Star the stage that he deserves and to applaud his performance with our hearty “hallelujah’s” and our grateful “amen’s”.

His name is Jesus, and he’s never too old for our cradling, our holding, our prayers, and our tears of celebratory and unwavering love. May your couch and your deliberate pause therein capture the glimpse of God’s best in this season.

Oh come, oh come, Emmanuel.

Copyright © November 2008 – Elaine Olsen. All rights reserved

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PS: Here are the winners for John Eldredge’s Epic. Now before you applaud me for my benevolence, realize that I’ve found a great new discount store in my neck of the woods that carries an awesome selection of books with rock bottom prices. I mean can you say looowwww? Anyway, I went in there yesterday to secure a few more copies and ended up buying what they had left. Eleven. Yes, that’s right. Eleven winners. Actually, twelve, but said preacher man stole a copy! I allowed Miss Pink to pick and here are the results. I’m not going to “link” your name (honestly, too much work for me, and I’m exhausted).

Beth E., Joanne Sher, Technonana, Laura, Denise, Sita, Susan, Lynn B., Stone Fox (Heidi), Sheryl, LauraLee. Congrats ladies. Email me your snail mail (full names please) even if you think I already have it. It will take me a few days to get everything in the mail, and if I see anymore at my new favorite hang-out, I promise to pick up some additional copies. Whew. Love you all! ~elaine

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