Well, friends – another year has just about come to a close and Christmas Eve 2019 is upon us. I know that most of the world keeps going nonstop until all of the stores and restaurants close later tonight, but to me that seems a little silly… Yes tomorrow – the 25th – is the actual Christmas holiday. But most churches have their big services and any programs tonight, the 24th. And since Christmas is all about Jesus anyway… I don’t know. I just wish we could have more than one 24 hour period to fully stop and breathe and remember the gift of perfect Peace that came to us so humbly in a stable so many years ago.

So wherever you are, friend, even if you still have three stores to hit and countless presents to wrap yet today… I invite you to take just a moment. Right here, right now. A moment to pause and to reflect and to remember that while the gifts and presents we give can be beautiful expressions of our love for someone… they are not the end all, be all. Christmas could still happen – and it would still be all it needs to be – without a single gift for our sister or for our in laws or even for our kids. So I invite you to breathe… and to remember.

Speaking of gifts, though, today’s post is actually an introduction to a writing project that’s been on my heart and mind for quite some time. As 2019 has progressed and I’ve continued to learn and see what it’s like to live a life free from unnecessary bondage, I’ve come to view the last seven years since high school as an incredible gift from the Lord. And, within that, I’ve come to realize that there are some specific gifts from Him that stick out in my mind. Gifts that would not have come if anything had been different in recent years, but gifts without which I absolutely cannot imagine my life today.

So I invite you on this journey with me… or as I might like to call it, I invite you to join me in exploring my own “12 days of Christmas”. I’ve got a list of twelve things for which I am daily filled with gratitude, and each day between now and January 5th I’m going to take a look at each gift individually. I’ll have some kind of wrap up post then on the 6th, on Epiphany… on a day where we can remember when the Christ Child received the gifts from the magi.

I’ll see you along the way, friend. Here’s to new beginnings, surrendering to Jesus, seeing the beauty in ashes… and, most importantly, here’s to the birth of our Savior all those years ago.

Merry Christmas Eve.