had to share....

Just something I wanted to share...A very small portion of my Mom's sermon this Sunday, when my Mom was away last week she asked me if it was okay to use some of my blog entries in a sermon she was going to do soon....not only do I think it is kind of cool that I am part of her sermon.. but I really did learn something from it....


SERMON
Isaiah 64:1-9
“The Advent of Hope: Seeing God’s Face
THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT
November 30, 2008 YEAR B
A good many of you have met my daughter Michelle and her husband Terry. Michelle and I are very close and talk to each other on the phone at least once a day…sometimes more. Well one morning just before we left on holidays Michelle mentions to me she doesn’t know what is wrong because she just can’t get into the Christmas spirit. Now this is very unusual for Michelle for normally right about the middle of November she gets busy decorating her house with beautiful decorations making their living space look like it should be in Better Homes. Then she gets out her good books and begins planning the food that she will serve at what has become an annual Christmas party for their friends.
A few days later as she was shopping at Micheal’s …the great craft store many of us like to visit whenever we are in London she wrote the following in an e-mail when we were away “So I walk in and I start hearing the Christmas music.......as I told you …[before]
I am not really feeling the season like usual so the tunes kind of annoyed me......but I was in stamp paradise (one of Michelle’s hobbies is scrapbooking) so I wasn't paying too much attention to the modern rendition of "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire"....and then I saw it, … all the coolest kids Christmas Crafts????????? Well I don't know why....but that was it, I stood there and thought to myself...this is what I want to be doing I want to be doing Christmas Crafts with our kids...I'm done with making my Christmas Tree look like it is out of a magazine and I don't want to have a fancy adult party with the perfect
hors d’oeuvres, I just want to make homemade tacky ornaments that don't match and don't have a theme with our kids?????So there I am standing in the middle of the display with tears starting to well up…I guess this is what they meant when they said you are going to have some bad days in the "waiting period"?????!!!!”
This year has been a difficult year for Michelle and Terry. As I have mentioned to a few of you they found out this past spring after many tests that they are unable to have children of their own. So after a lot of soul searching they decided to proceed with all the necessary paperwork, interviews and workshops as all the details of their lives were examined to become adoptive parents. And so now they wait…hoping that this might be the day they will get the phone call from the social worker that they have been chosen …and a special little one will now be theirs to love. But for now these are dark days …difficult days …as they wait and hope.
They have entered a season of Advent in their lives…hoping for the coming or arrival of something especially momentous and awaited…longing to see their chosen child’s tiny face.

And today we enter that season in our church year…hoping for the coming or arrival of something momentous and awaited…the time when we long to see…God’s face...
that we will come to realize will be found, in the dark recesses of a stable when we look into the eyes of humble, helpless child.But before we can see this joyous sight we must go through some dark days.........

...this is just the first section of this particular sermon....this is just one of the many awesome, enlightening sermons of my Mom's....

Thanks Mom I really enjoyed this sermon, but most of all it truly gave me comfort when I read it!
love
m