Immanuel, God With Us

Christmas 2014 came with many changes.
I have a new son and a new daughter!
TWO weddings in one year~ and I lived through them both!!

Tim and I are acutely aware of how richly God has provided
this year. Gifts are eternal; family, God's written Word and
Immanuel--baby Jesus wrapped in pink, soft, newborn skin..

Here are some highlights from today:
No snow here~ :(

Mom, enjoying her grandkids!

Tyler and Hannah married 7-12-14

Nathan and Margret married 8-9-14

Tim and Bonnie married 11-17-84

All our "gifts"

I am grateful tonight. Or should I say, this morning? I can't sleep, so I thought I'd give you these faces. 

One of the most precious gifts Mom has ever given hangs around my neck. A cross, gold, with some engraving on it.

Mom has been going through old photos lately. She passed out some of them to us, each of us, for Christmas.  There was My Dad.  My brother loving on his nieces. Me as a baby. Dad's old huntin' dog Pat. And her puppies. And Mom and Steve..

 One for me was
of her and my brother, standing in the door way of her apartment in Traverse City, in 1990; in it, our Mom is wearing the cross he just bought her.  

And now it's mine. 24 years later.

Fitting for Christmas~ a cross.  Jesus was a baby, in a manger, but He
had a purpose for being on the Earth He created.
He came to teach us how to live.

Then, 33 years later,  He died a lonely, horrific, criminal's death, an atonement for our sins, on a cross. A wood one, heavy, with splinters I imagine.

BUT THE GOOD NEWS?  REMEMBER WHEN THE ANGEL SAID "I have good news of great joy?" The God Incarnate had come to earth, and He had a plan
to deliver us from sin and death.  This is Good News!!!!!

"For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."

It all began with a tiny, innocent, vulnerable baby..

Our Savior. 

Jesus.


Merry Christmas dear ones,

He is faithful,
Bonnie