Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Merry Christmas


Christmas day in Mill Creek Canyon.

Jen was scheduled to work on Christmas day. The 5am phone call told her, “hey just take the day off.” So she did. She just laid around the house eating leftover Christmas candy and cookies and watching TV. Not! She suggested we go for a cross country ski trip up her favorite canyon. It is her favorite because it is the only one of the canyons that allows Uma to accompany her.

It was a beautiful day for such an outing. So beautiful in fact that we had to park at the 3rd parking lot from the main lot there were so many people enjoying the canyon. But by the time we had skied 2 miles we were pretty much out of the crowds, and off of the snow packed road. Now there were only two ski tracks through a foot and a half of fresh powder.



It was crisp up there. The thermometer said 15 degrees when we started. I suspect by the time we turned around it was around 0. It was ok as long as you were moving, and had shoes on. Uma was beginning to get pretty uncomfortable and when we started down, Jen put her on her back. Other than the people thinking she had the ugliest baby in the state, it went pretty good.


Christmas Eve we spent at Alta with Amy. We downhill skied that day. It was a pretty day until about 1pm when the wind started to blow and by 3 the snow was pelting us pretty hard so we wrapped it up. We went down the hill a little way to Snowbird where we attended the Christmas Eve service they have there each year.

They had asked me to preach the sermon, those were their words. But the storm coming in kept the pianist and the music leader from showing up. So in addition to preaching the sermon I was also privileged to lead the music without accompaniment.

I preached on The Birthday of a King. Using Philippians 2 I pointed out that Jesus’ birth was different than any other in that He was not born and then grew to be a king. He was King who emptied himself to become like us. When Joseph held the baby in his arms he was holding the creator of the universe. When Mary nuzzled his neck and kissed his face she was kissing the face of God.

I quoted from the song “Mary Did You Know,” The baby you delivered will soon deliver you.

I talked about the Herod and the Wise men in all of us. There is a Herod in me that resents another wanting authority in the kingdom of my life. But there is a wise man too, that if I will allow, will fall down and worship the Lord Jesus.

All in all it was a good Christmas. We heard from Nathan and his Amy as they celebrated in Texas. Krista called from North Carolina and helped us talk to Andrew. He said “hi” to me, on cue. (along with hanging up on us two or three times) That was special. Josh surprised us with a call from Afghanistan. He had “borrowed” a satellite phone and called from the top of a building in the north east corner of the country.



We talked to our families and some other friends throughout the day. Our plan of Green Chile Enchiladas for Christmas dinner fell through though. After the 6 mile ski trip, we were content to eat some left over chicken and call it a day.

I pray you each have a wonderful new year, a really happy 2008.

God Bless

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