Something Sweet

The holiday season - filled with sweets of all kinds! Fudge, candy canes, frosted sugar cookies, and even graham-cracker houses, such as the one below:

I made this graham cracker house (actually a church, in this case) at a friend's home the weekend before finals. Friendship is such a sweet gift, and spending some time with dear friends decorating graham cracker houses, watching It's a Wonderful Life, eating delicious food, going to church together on Sunday, and more was a very special treat! With all the stress of the last couple weeks of the semester, the laugh-a-lot, talk-a-ton weekend among friends was just what I needed.

One of the sweetest things about this season is the emphasis on relationships. We send cards to friends and relatives. We plan parties with co-workers or fellow students. We dream of the joy of spending Christmas day with family, because "there's no place like home for the holidays."

And we celebrate the sweetest gift of all time at Christmas. Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, came to Earth as a human baby in order to live among us and ultimately offer us reconciliation and salvation through His death and resurrection. There is no greater friend than the one true God of all!

"Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us."
~ Matthew 1:23

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you my friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you."
~John 15:13-15

Dear friends, may you hold close the blessing of something sweet this Christmas - not just the sugary desserts, but the relationships you have with friends, family, and most of all God.

Have a very merry Christmas!