title: I Celebrate the Day by Relient K
that is seriously my favorite Christmas song ever. ever ever EVER! followed by Peace is Here by Jars of Clay.
so i sat down at my joseph an hour ago to start this year's edition of the Christmas blog, katie* style, but alex left me a message, i had to check lobh, and then nick and jenny came over. i've missed those two. and i think i've decided that my New Year's Resolution is no ponytails more than once a week. i'm ridiculously sick of it. i don't even really like how it looks. it's just easy.
anyway. Jamie beat me to the Christmas blog, but his was more of an update and i figure as long as i get mine up before Jon i'm golden.
this year i had a plan to write about seven words commonly associated with Christmas the seven days leading up to it, but that obviously didn't work. i did successfully write up Wonder, did a short diddy on Hope, thought about Peace, came dangerously close to writing Joy, and Warmth and Reflection were just a all out bust. but this one. this last day before Christmas i had to do. it's my favorite. a word that carries the weight of the world. i'll even go as far as to say that it is my favorite word ever.
Love
i spent most of this year learning about love, and how it is the most wonderful word ever spoken, written or thought of. love is multidemtional. love is everything. love goes beyond romance, beyond hope, beyond the reaches of any imagination. love goes the distance and more. love is there. love is always there.
this spring i learn so much of Love. the first straight up lesson i recognized and put together from God. i learned that the Bible isn't kidding when it says "God is Love" that is the greatest promise. Love is God, and God is Love.
on my calendar (yes the Buddist one) i have Christmas day marked as The Birth of Love.
love is an abused word, but that doesn't matter. unlike other cliches love thrives on. love continues. love will always remain, even when we are stripped of all else that makes us human. love is the basis of the greatest collection of books that has ever been written.
there is a reason John 3:16 doesn't say "for God so cherished the world" or "for God so cared for the world". the Bible is clear "for God so LOVED the world He gave His only begotten Son" love is versatile.
i lost many many things this year, but never before i have a gained so much love. God loves me. and yes, even now i am learning to love me.
there is a reason To Write Love on Her Arms isn't called To Write Hope of Her Arms, To Write Faith on Her Arms, or To Write Christ on Her Arms. why use words that do not cover them all? why not just call it Love?
many songs have been written of love. last year on Christmas Day i wrote about Let Your Love Be Strong by Switchfoot, and I Celebrate the Day by Relient K. this year i considered talking about The Beautiful Letdown by Switchfoot.
love covers my favorite contrast: that of beauty and pain. Jon has said that the place between beauty and pain is honesty, but i have to wonder if that place isnt' also love. love exists in our beautiful moments, in our most painful, and for those in between.
God exists in our beautiful moments, in our most painful and for those in between.
God is Love. and Love was born for us. Love died for us in the ultimate act of revenge. the ultimate weapon against hate. Love died for us in love.
Jesus is King. Jesus is Love.
and He is mine
-katie*
"I'm lost in the darkBut I can see the lightI'm afraid to draw nearAnd see the truthTo end this broken songTo pick up a new tuneTo let you sing alongDid I mention I need youThat I want you by my side?Did I mention that you're my everythingThat I won't do well without you around?Did I mention that I want to rest in your armsFor the rest of eternity?Did I forget to mention that?"
-Untitled by me