family together for Christmas...


Our home just emptied this morning, as my mother and brother left to head back to Indiana. I don't like goodbyes. My insides ache with the sadness of their leaving.

It was such a blessing to have Thanksgiving with them and then have them return to Tulsa to spend more time together. We praise God for them!

Tonight, Lauren opens for the Christian band "Downhere" out of Canada. She is very nervous, but very excited. We are so excited for her opportunity!

Deanna just left for school. It is just me, Jesus and Christmas music.

I cannot help but wonder if Jesus longs for our homecoming, the way we long to be with loved ones we do not get to see enough. The ache can be overwhelming. Saying goodbye without knowledge of the next hello, is like a bellowing echo with no place to land.

With His knowledge of our lives and all that is going on, how can He not hunger for our upcoming time of eternal fellowship? I believe He does. I know I do.

His word says that He lives to ever intercede for us. When we join our hearts to His through prayer, we are truly united. We come together as Jesus did with His Father when He walked the earth.

We know He frequently got away to be with His Father. The unity that resulted had eternal implications for you and me. To take our prayer time too lightly is unwise. It seems to be that thing that we always think we'll have time for, later.

Later is elusive. It seldom arrives. Later is no companion. It's a soothing word to move us forward to the next moment without having to invest in this one.

Hope on the other hand, often seems to evade our capture, but it is that abiding sense of goodness to come. There IS always hope. WE can always hope. Hope is not fantasy. At least not hope in Christ or His return.

That hope is promised, and it is coming. You can sense it. We hasten His return with a hope that must quicken His pulse. The desire He must have to be united with us as we offer Him our worship, our all, would consume us if we could experience it.

The tinge of longing I experience when I have to say goodbye, must reside in dark shadows compared to the sensory explosion we will enter into when that day finally comes!

I do not like saying goodbye. But my abiding partner of hope keeps me longing forward. That day will be sooner than we think. I can sense His desire through the quiet moments of loss and parting.

He is there. He is near. He is coming soon!

I hope for shared eternal moments of His time.


brent