Merry Christmas to all!

Technically I should have written something yesterday, but with all the "shenanigans and goings-on" there was really no time.

I can't believe that Christmas has come and gone once again! It amazes me every year.

Here are a few things I will miss terribly until the season rolls 'round again : the music, the decorations, the movies, the smells, the celebration, the family time, and how for one brief season people everywhere are drawn towards the story of the Christ-child.

Now, if we would only spend the same time in praise and adoration in August as we do in December...

I hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas, and that God blesses you richly in the New Year.

- J

Christmas in New York

New York is lovely in the winter time... especially when it snows in Times Square... ... this I now know. I had the privilege of adventuring there with two wonderful girlfriends of mine: Natalie Rutherford, and Jill Wiebe (aka - Rabbit and Jack).

We really took New York by storm... or it took US by storm! We arrived on Thursday evening, and by Friday we had seen The Statue of Liberty, Times Square, Central Park, Statton Island, Empire State Building, Ground Zero, and whatever the "hop on, hop off" bus had to offer.

We wasted NO time, leaving us completely exhausted by the time we'd arrive at our Jersey City "Econolodge" at the end of the day. Cue: tv special on the history of felines.

It was thrilling... honestly, there are few things that compare to the sights and sounds of Times Square in early December - a seemingly unstoppable tizzy of activity; an overwhelming flurry of every type of person you can think of - and then the snow fell, reminding me that this was no circus. This is New York City... where people live life everyday, just like me.

I rode the subway and thought of that song : "give me Your eyes for just one second. Give me Your eyes so I can see everything that I keep missing. Give me Your love for humanity". There's a lot of hurting people there, just like here. They need to know Christ's love, just like I do.

I (heart) NY.