The Promised King

I look outside my window right now and all I want to do is curl up with a good book and a soft blanket and read all day long. Doesn't that sound perfectly delightful?

I think so, too.

The trees have lost their October beauty, all of the leaves lay scattered on the ground. The sky is dark and the weather gloomy.

Thanksgiving is literally just around the corner. I'm personally very excited for the Macy's Day Parade. It's probably my second favorite thing on Thanksgiving.

The first? Our Bowers family Thanksgiving dinner. We gather around the table at my Aunt's house. All of us hold hands, making a circle around the entire kitchen. It's a beautiful family, you see. I am so blessed with a family who gets along, who loves one another deeply. And this time of year I am incredibly grateful.

After dinner is over, all of us ladies clean up the kitchen while the guys watch football. It's just what happens. The house gets warmer as everyone laughs and talks. But the warmth doesn't seem to bother anyone- because we're together.

And together is a beautiful place to be.

We're together, and we're joyful and we're oh-so-thankful for this huge, crazy family God has given us.

On the way back to our house, Dad turns on the Christmas music and we sing all the way back from Charlotte. On Saturday we'll decorate our tree and hang the ornaments, the music still blaring. We'll get started on Christmas shopping.

But just as Thanksgiving isn't just about the turkey or the football games or parades, Christmas isn't about the trees or the music or the shopping.

Sure we're thankful for our families and our homes...but Christmas comes so close to Thanksgiving that I can't help but wonder if God did this on purpose.

Back in the Old Testament we see that God's people had to wait 400 years for the coming of the Messiah. 400 years! That's a LONG time. If you went back 400 years from 2014 it would be 1614! Ha. That's crazy.

Imagine you're God's people and you've waited and waited and waited for the Promised Christ's coming, hoping maybe this is the generation who will see the Lord.

Then you hear of this baby born in Bethlehem...son of Mary and Joseph and His name is Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us.

Imagine you were one of the ones in Scripture who realized He was the Promised King, the Promised One come to save us all. Your heart would sing with praise and thankfulness. 

So Thanksgiving is on Thursday...less than one month from Christmas, less than one month from the celebration of Christ's coming. May we take this Thanksgiving to be especially grateful for these weeks of waiting and exciting anticipation of the celebration of the baby who came to save us all.

Happy Thanksgiving.

~Bailey

A World with Octobers.

I drove down the road yesterday coming home from a babysitting job, old Taylor Swift blasting through my speakers, the windows down and the breeze in my hair.

The leaves are changing colors. Bright reds and oranges. Soon they'll fall and create mounds of crinkly leaves on the ground.

There's something about this change of seasons that I've grown to love.

I used to absolutely love summer. I loved the warm weather, shorts and flip flops, the beach and the fact that we had over two full months without school. I still do.

But there's something about fall and spring that have become my favorite.

Because when I watch the leaves grow in the spring, bright green with blossoms and blooms, my heart is full and the Lord says, "That's what I've done in you. I've given you new life."

And in the fall when the leaves turn colors and begin to fall he says, "Look, it's your past. All of those things you regret...they can be forgotten. You are forgiven. Wait a little bit longer, you'll start to feel that new life again."

I sit here typing these words and I can only think...

Without Octobers we would miss the colors of the leaves. We would miss bonfires and s'mores and the smell that the smoke from the fire leaves on our clothes. 

We would miss pumpkins and cool fall days just before the weather turns cold. We would miss days spent in our favorite cozy sweatshirt with a good book. 

We would miss so many things. 

So today there's not a whole lot on my mind. But I'm making sure I take the time to thank God for this October. Because there won't be another one just like it. 

He is daily reminding me that those broken pieces of my past are still healing. That all of my sin has been washed clean. 

He reminds me that His love for me is unconditional, unfathomable. 

And every time I see those bright red and orange leaves He says, "I created this. I created the billions of stars. I created the vast fields and the birds and animals. And I said, 'It is good.' But then I created you! And you were very good. I will hold you and take care of you. Your future is in my hand, daughter. You are precious to me. Just like the colors of those leaves, you are unlike any other."

I breathe deeply and let the cool air fill my lungs, grateful for this day He's given me. Grateful that I am made in His imagine and for His plan. 

And I'm especially grateful He's given us Octobers.

~Bailey