Although it seems like ancient history by now, Christmas this year was incredible! Christmas is always my absolute favorite time of the year, but this year was quite different... since we were celebrating halfway around the world and all. :) Tim and I had our own Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve Day, where we opened all the presents our wonderful friends and family sent us. We felt so blessed! We even got to skype with my family, and open presents at the same time! On Christmas Eve night we traveled into Seoul and met up with our friends from church. Several families from our church were vacationing for Christmas, and said that we were welcome to use their apartments for the holidays. So we had a slumber party with our friends on Christmas Eve, and on Christmas Day, more people showed up for the Christmas party! There was a turkey dinner, gift exchange, Christmas karaoke, games, a reading of the Christmas story... our pastor even dropped by and preached an impromptu mini sermon! :) We definitely missed being home with our families, but thankfully, we felt surrounded by so much love. All of us had come from so many different paths, and yet there we all were, celebrating together. It was a good feeling.
Being in a completely different environment for Christmas allowed me to really reflect on what Christmas meant to me. This year on Christmas, I kept thinking about grace. What an amazing thing that God sent Jesus to Earth to save us, and to show us how to live life to the fullest. And how incredible that He just keeps pouring out grace over and over, even (and especially) when we don't deserve it. I realized how much I really don't understand it. One of my favorite songs lately is "Grace" by an extremely talented singer/songwriter named Aaron Espe. The lyrics in the chorus say simply and perfectly: "Grace, what a lovely thing. Grace, what a lovely thing. Grace, what a lovely thing. It got me on my feet again." I think that song is a beautiful depiction of what God gave to us when He sent His Son, and what He continues to give to us when we seek it. That's what I call a Merry Christmas.
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