Chaotic Christmas

http://christian-backgrounds.com/christian-wallpapers-backgrounds/desktop-wallpapers/picture/christmas/568-jesus-birth-and-the-star

Every week at church, I lead a kindergarten small group. For the last few weeks, we have been doing various Christmas crafts during the small group time. Last Sunday, one of the activities was to cut out all of the different characters from the nativity- the shepherds, the wise men, Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, the animals, the angel- and glue them all to a picture of an empty stable on a sheet of paper. But there was an issue with the craft; the stable was WAY too small for all of those little paper characters! The kids in my small group had a difficult time fitting all of the little shepherds and magi and other people into the picture. But, many of them somehow managed to squeeze them all as neatly as possible onto the paper with Joseph and Mary and the baby in the center with the shepherds, animals, and wise men surrounding them. However, one little girl didn't even try to arrange the people in the typical manger scene way. In fact, she didn't even put baby Jesus on the ground of the stable, she glued him floating in the air in the middle of the paper! Then, she put all of the other little characters in a big, unorganized blob-like formation around him. At first, this really bothered me. Then, it occurred to me how well this depicted the Christmas story. While most people picture the nativity scene as a serene picture of rustic shepherds with their cute, fluffy sheep, a sweet, adoring Mary, and a holy baby wrapped in clean, white cloths with a little ring of light around his head, I don't believe that the actual event was like this at all. I mean seriously, the baby was born in a STABLE, probably surrounded by dirty, smelly animals and soiled hay and cow manure. That's the opposite of serene. I kind of wonder if the stable was more like this picture...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2007/1510680324_0d799c6279.jpg

But yet, as crazy as it may have seemed, as chaotic as the strange circumstances surrounding the story may have appeared, there was still something greater. In the midst of the nativity story, I'll bet that Mary and Joseph wondered why they had to stay in a stable, why they had to put their newborn son in a dirty, nasty manger. But even when it seemed all chaotic and unorganized, everything added to a bigger picture. Each character, each circumstance, was all about God's plan to save the world. So in the end, it didn't matter that everything wasn't serene and perfect and Hallmark card worthy, because God had something better than that. He had a greater plan. So even when circumstances seem so meaningless and trials make us feel like God doesn't care about us, we can look at the Christmas story and realize that there is something bigger at work in our lives. This reminds me of the lyrics of one of my favorite songs.
"All this pain
I wonder if I’ll ever find my way
I wonder if my life could really change at all
All this earth
Could all that is lost ever be found
Could a garden come up from this ground at all
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us
All around
Hope is springing up from this old ground
Out of chaos life is being found in You."
- Beautiful Things by The Michael Gungor Band

So despite chaos and seemingly useless pain, God makes beautiful things out of dust.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
<3 Clara 

Irrational fears

http://www.gumbyworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/gumby-waving-driving.jpg

Here are my top three irrational fears:

1. Clowns
2. Cabbage Patch Kids
3. Gumby
I don't know if anyone else is like me in this, but Gumby really is frightening! He (or it, whatever it is) gives me this icky feeling inside whenever I see pictures of him. But on a more serious note, there are so many things to be afraid of. All of us have had questions at one time or another like: What if an earthquake happens where I live? What if I have an internet stalker? What if someone who I'm close to becomes severely ill or passes away? What if I suddenly have to move to Greenland and leave behind all of my friends from school and church? Or, the classic one for teenage girls, "What if I'm forever alone and never find my significant other?"
The sad part is, all of these fears have to do with "I, me, my". Fear itself is a selfish thing. Although it may have to do with someone other than yourself such as a close friend, in the end, all great fears boil down to one common subject: you. But what is there to do about it? Well, there's this amazing verse that I find myself reciting many times. "Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7
In the end, these fears are so ridiculous. God has such an awesome plan already, why are you fretting about what it is? And why spend so much time worrying what will happen to you when you could go out and help others who are facing those types of trials? If you can help those who are moving away from their home, or who have lost a loved one or who are struggling with the idea of being single, you can go and help them. It will allow you to spread God's love and realize that it isn't all about you; a win-win situation!

When it rains it pours

The saying "when it rains it pours" is very common, yes. But I never realized its true significance until this past week. To begin the week, my gerbil Reepicheep (named after the Chronicles of Narnia) died of old age, which was quite sad. Then the next day, Wednesday, at around 10:30 in the morning, a switch in the circuit board in my house broke and we lost electricity! Of course, I have lived without electricity before, but I have never had to go without it in my own house for more than about thirty minutes. Before I knew it, I was working at the library to get internet and using candles for light whenever I was at home. To make matters worse, the handyman of my house, my dad, was out of town and wasn't coming home until Thursday night. Also, that Wednesday night was the coldest night since the beginning of this winter and we didn't have any heat since the electricity was down. When my dad finally got home the following night, we had been living without electricity for more than twenty-four hours; he came home to a freezing cold house and he also had happened to lose one of his suitcases at the airport, which was quite frustrating as well. He began to work on fixing it as soon as possible, and unfortunately enough that involved removing the entire circuit board and replacing it. If things couldn't get worse, he was parked in the Home Depot parking lot to get supplies to fix the circuit board on Friday and when he tried to start the car to leave, he realized that the starter in the engine had stopped working! So, not only did we have a gerbil death, a cold dark house, and lost luggage, but also a broken down car! Thankfully, my dad is virtually a jock of all trades and after a long day of working on the circuit board, the lights came on (and I've never been happier to switch on a light). The following day, Saturday, he was able to fix the car and a person from the airport also found his luggage and returned it to us. Although I'm still recovering a little bit and catching up on the schoolwork that I didn't get to do because it was saved on an electronic storage device, I am glad that it happened. Why? Because I learned through the whole thing how much I have to be thankful for. How else would I have realized how blessed I am to have electric lighting and heat and a functional microwave? Without this crazy experience, I would still take it for granted.