On the video blog this week, I am reading one of my all time favorite daydreams (Week 4 Day 1).  What if Mary and Joseph knew that their baby was supposed to be born in Bethlehem?  Did they talk about this prophesied birthplace for the Messiah?  Did they think they should make preparations to go there?   I hope that you can take some time to listen in to how God worked out every single detail of their birth plan. Christmas is just around the corner. Let’s keep making room to remember Jesus together … Do you still have wrapping to do? I do.  As we  wrap gifts, let’s remember that…

 One of the lovely and unexpected gifts of writing Wrapped in Grace has been getting to share this favorite season and familiar story with friends, both new and old. Every fall I fly from Phoenix to Grand Rapids to spend a week with my family, attend the Breathe Writers Conference, eat apples and donuts with my nieces and nephews, and to experience fall as it is supposed to be.  It is always super busy. We have a big family and we never get to do everything we would like to, but we savor the moments and fill every day to the brim.  I love that this week is scheduled into my…

I love the lights and the music, and children dressed in bathrobes and angel wings for their Christmas pageants. In our new neighborhood, just around the corner, busloads of people come to look at an entire street decked with  lights and decorations.  The backyard of one house is set up to resemble a walk through Bethlehem on the night Jesus was born. December has been a time of joyous anticipation, but the reality for many of us, is that it has also been a season of navigating hard places. The eternal and true God really became flesh and blood, not for only for our celebrations, but also for our heartaches. I want to carefully enter the upcoming weekend , aware and…

This is the kind of year I dream about.  The very earliest date to begin the season of  Advent is November 27th, and 2016 is a November 27th year.  It won’t happen again until 2022,  We have four whole weeks to anticipate the coming of Jesus.  Four weeks to prepare and ponder the miracle of the manger. Let’s connect here often  during these next weeks,  and may this be our prayer: Let’s not let the season trump the Story. Let’s anticipate Jesus together. Let us allow the whisper of his name to cause us to breathe more deeply, to encounter again the absolute wonder of the story — That God became flesh.…

May I introduce you to my dear Uncle Bill? He is a  painter, potter, and lover of God’s good story.  He has gifted his corner of Cleveland and the life of our family with beautiful pieces of art and the faithful prayers of one who lives and walks with Jesus. We talk a few times a month, and sometime in October he said, “Send me ten Wrapped in Grace books.  I’d like to give them away to my friends as gifts for Advent.”  Like I said … dear Uncle Bill.  Just last Saturday he left me a message that he had received the books and already has six people in mind to give them…

I know, I know – it isn’t even Halloween yet, and I am thinking about Christmas. True confession — I think about Christmas a lot. Partly because I love  everything about Christmas,  and partly because writing and editing a book so that you can have it before the season is in full swing, means I get to think about Christmas in July. (Which is really just a good excuse for me to do something I love.) One of my favorite things about the Christmas story is how God used ordinary people who were willing to say YES to him, to tell his story.  Mary was a teenage girl planning her wedding when God asked her…