365 Days of Blessings, Day 190

Giving Thanks and Praise for these simple blessings today:

1. The amazing talent of my writing class.

2. One of my writing students taking a chance on publishing. He sent out his story to a prospective on-line magazine publisher just last week. I'm gladdened by his confidence and praying that his story is accepted. He is a ten year old boy who hated writing until he started taking my class. He is now writing between 2-5 pages a week, and looks forward to hearing feedback!!! I don't know if I will ever forget my favorite description in his first story. "Lime green lamborghini" is a memorable phrase.

3. My writing class has been asked to write "Dear Santa" letters for the co-op newsletter.

4. Two of my Shakespeare students are so intrigued by Macbeth that they asked me permission to read ahead . . . maybe even the whole play this week. Wow!

5. Shakespeare uses plenty of Biblical imagery in Macbeth, and it is fun to study.

6. There are students interested in taking my Writers Workshop and my C.S. Lewis classes next year at co-op.

7. My youngest daughter may be sick, but she has an active imagination.

8. My youngest has already written the sequel to Rick Riordan's The Lost Hero in her head. She knows exactly what she wants to have happen. Too bad we won't find out for six more months. I know these aren't Christian books, but we are all reading them simultaneously and then discussing them. (arguing over whose turn it is to read is a normal activity in our household)

9. Books that capture our imaginations and help us soar creatively.

10. God Came Near by Max Lucado. Gripping, descriptive, loving and thought-provoking book that lifts me up when I read it.

11. God came near, really, literally, as a baby in a manger who grew into a man who saved us from our sins.

Scripture Blessings:

"In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn." Luke 2:1-7


From God Came Near
"Majesty in the midst of the mundane. Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat. Divinity entering the world through the womb of a teenager and in the presence of a carpenter.

This baby has overlooked the universe. These rags keeping him warm were the robes of eternity. His golden throne room has been abandoned in favor of a dirty sheep pen. And worshiping angels had been replaced with kind but bewildered shepherds.

Meanwhile, the city hums. The merchants are unaware that God has visited their planet. The innkeeper would never believe that he had just sent God into the cold. And the people would scoff at anyone who told them the Messiah lay in the arms of a teenager on the outskirts of their village. They were all too busy to consider the possibility.

Those who missed his Majesty's arrival that night missed it not because of evil acts or malice; no, they missed it because they simply weren't looking.

Little has changed in two thousand years, has it?"by Max Lucado, in God Came Near