Twas the Week Before Christmas . . .

One week until Christmas. Now, things calm down a bit for me! Is that backwards? I don't know. Yes, I still have Christmas shopping to do, but I don't worry about that too much. Most of the extra stuff I have to do is now done: annual report, annual meeting, open house, newsletter, cards, decorating, bulletins . . .  From Thanksgiving through the first half of Advent it is quite hectic. But now, things slow down and I really enjoy this part of Advent. A few sermons to write, but mostly, for me the stress is now off. Now, time to enjoy. :-)

A couple of other comments . . .

My prayer list is getting rather long! It always varies in size as people are added and removed, but it seems as if these days there is an unusual amount of people with troubles to pray for. I am glad to do so, but my heart breaks for them.

And two verses that jumped out at me this morning in Morning Prayer, both from Isaiah:

The fear of the Lord is Zion treasure. (Isaiah 33:6b)

For the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver; the Lord is our king; he will save us. (Isaiah 33:22)

That first one is just plain cool. But that second one, think about it. We usually connect judge and lawgiving with condemnation, but here Isaiah is connecting them with saving. Hmmm . . .