Christmas Letter 2007

Dear Family and Friends,


One, one more year, one more Christmas letter, one more move, more and more changes.

Another year has passed and I sit here now a quarter of a century old recalling the things of the past year that have enriched my life or just created change.

Top ten things that came to mind:
1. Teaching 5th grade in Southwest Missouri (the warm weather I left behind)
2. January ice storm in Missouri that left me stuck at home for a week & the state with devastation
3. Moving back to C the day after summer school ended
4. Redoing the interior of the Lutheran Parsonage (where I live)
5. Teaching Kindergarten in C with teachers that use to teach me in grade school
6. Hours of cheerleading practices, games, parades, choreography for dances, and colorguard
7. Maid of honor in Ciara’s country wedding in C
8. Iowa State beating Iowa in football and Cy being recognized as the most dominate mascot in
college sports
9. Bridesmaid in my cousin Kendra’s wedding in Illinois
10. Bridesmaid in Casey’s fall wedding in C

More changes are still underway as the new year is just around the corner. I reflect on Christmas, Christmas the holiday that sneaks up now around October when the stores start filling the shelves with Santa Clauses. Christmas, the holiday that rushes past us on Black Friday for those early risers and the bargains at the stores. Christmas, the holiday that when it finally arrives we have packaged, wrapped, and placed a bow on it. Christmas is about the giving of gifts and the holiday gatherings with friends and family. Or is it? This past Thanksgiving I found myself at a gathering of high schoolers and fellow Christians. The main topic was Connected, being connected with God and how we connect ourselves with others. There is so much going on in our lives, in our country politically, and our world with wars, destruction, and famine that we often forget about one thing that connects us together. Christ’s love. Some do not know and some choose to put it in the back of their minds. No matter how we choose to package and wrap up Christmas, it will always be connected to Christ and God’s love for us.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son…….. John 3:16

Take a moment and think about the true Christmas story, remember that there wasn’t CNN, Time Magazine, or even the local Free Press. God sent angels to sing to shepherds about the coming of Christ. Shepherds were out in the fields, disconnected from others. He didn’t lead them with a TomTom or other GPS devices, God put a star in the sky, simple and bright. Christ wasn’t born in a 5-star hotel. Mary wasn’t sitting in the maternity ward, her and Joseph were disconnected from their family taking a long journey across the land. Christmas for them was just another day to struggle in life…another day that they were getting closer and closer to being connected to God in away that none of us could ever imagine. Envision what Mary’s top ten list of changes would have been for a year in her life, the year she heard she was with a child. The year she traveled the land pregnant, the year she bore a child in a stable surrounded by animals. The year she became connected to God unlike any other person. She was with child,
and that child was to be called Jesus, Christ, the Messiah.
What a list that would have been…….What a connection….What a Christmas….


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!






Love,
Kris