beauty and the backdrop

Perhaps your life is a lot like mine. A complicated interplay of beauty and backdrop. I have observed joy and suffering simultaneously filling the scenes of each day, every season. Contrast. Light and dark. So it was in Mary's heart that first Christmas, at least as I imagine it. I am reminded again of the familiar story, real as ever before, about God voluntarily submitting Himself in scandalous humility and taking on flesh to dwell among us. The unthinkable was conceived and born. Radical love displayed in a most complex moment of breathtaking redemption and tragic pain.

He is here with us

By way of an update, we sold the Knoll and have moved from Crozet to a cozy little bungalow in Arlington. My reality has been packing, cleaning, nursing, not washing my hair for days, rushing about, making lists of essentials for Mark to go get. A recent list included shoe racks, seagrass baskets, butter, avocados, mounting tape, and velvet stockings. The beauty and the backdrop, that's what I'm sayin' ya'll. It is clear that God is already up to things here. Two other church planters, from differing denominations, have just moved to the same area as well. Watching the unfolding of God's plan is exhilarating. Many more details to come.

Merry, Merry Christmas blogosphere!