Emmanuel

I love Advent.  I love teaching my children and my preschoolers about Jesus' birth and we are super excited to have a Happy Birthday Jesus party at preschool very soon.  I love Santa and I am cool with that Elf on a Shelf thing, but reading Nativity Stories with children and talking about sweet baby Jesus gives me cold chills.

 Maybe because I love babies so much, but I love the story of our Savior coming to Earth as a sweet newborn.  Just picturing him so sweet in that manger gets me every time.  I also love christmas songs and this one below by Chris Tomlin is my song of the week. 



Emmanuel.  God With Us.  I remember clinging to that word this time last year as David began chemo treatments.  God has proven to us how faithful and "with us" he truly is and this song is so special to me.  This past Sunday I was listening to this song getting ready for church and then lo and behold the praise band at church rocked this song. 

A year later I still love the idea that God is our Emmanuel and that he is always with us.   I feel his presence each and everyday.  The past few weeks have been busy and intense but regardless of whether we are here at home or at UVA we know that our Emmanuel is faithful and is always with us. 

My prayer this advent season is to remember that our Emmanuel is so faithful to us that I need to be faithful in return.  I get so stressed this time of year making sure that everything is done on my "to do" list that I sometimes miss the forest for the trees. Tonight while making dinner I spilled an entire cup of milk.  Instead of calmly cleaning it up I lost my cool and in front of my children.  I tend to lose my cool when I am focusing on the superficial and silliness instead of keeping my eyes on Jesus. 

Emmanuel.  I pray that that word is as significant to you this advent season as it is to me. 

The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel-which means God with us

Matthew 1:23