on holiday

hello!!! i am back from a very relaxing and much needed vacation of sorts. jesse was home for 5 whole days and our holiday plans included staying home the entire time. at least until a quick trip to bloomington-normal for a couple hours this morning. it was amazingly therapeutic to just be here with no big plans for housework or projects, unpacking, parties, cooking. . . i could go on and on. this was the first christmas in our new home. i would love to tell you how great it felt to be here together and celebrate simply. it was nice. but, to be honest, there was a gaping hole in my heart. i am still sick with grief at times and it cast a somber light on the last week. i could not post a merry christmas to my lovely readers for this reason.

regardless, i do feel amazed by the great gift our Father gave us by sending his son in human form to live and suffer in our place. i remain joyful in hope, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer.

"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

Ephesians 3:17-19