good news of great joy

hello friends!  how have you all been?  we're doing well in the jacoby household.  i'm sorry i've been absent from the blogosphere the last few months.  a lot of life stuff has been happening, and i've meant to get on here to share and connect with all of you, and then more life happens... we've had work, and lack of work, a death of someone very dear to us, grief, healing, blessings, time with family and friends, holidays - halloween, and thanksgiving.  and now christmas is upon us.  i'm truly amazed at how fast the year has gone by. 

i'm hoping to spend this season of advent (the four weeks leading up to christmas), re-centering my heart on Jesus.  i was at a wonderful advent retreat a couple nights ago, and this quote was hanging inside the door of the room we met in.

Something in us always needs to be called home.  We need to see what or who we lack inside.  Advent is a time to reclaim what we have lost in our hearts.  It is not meant to be a cozy, self-satisfied time in which we wait for "Baby Jesus" to be born.  The birth of Jesus is a historical event.  Advent focuses instead on our own place of exile and whether or not this Savior who was born and lived on our earth has made a difference in our lives.

Joyce Rupp 

this quote really stirred something in my heart.  especially the first part - "Something in us always needs to be called home" - and the last part - "whether or not this Savior who was born and lived on our earth has made a difference in our lives."

as things get busy over the holidays and everything winds down for the year, i pray that we would all take time to quiet our hearts and reflect on the fact that we are constantly being "called home" by the one who is Love.  God's love for us is unconditional and everlasting.  and, in my humble opinion, that Truth makes just about all the difference in the world.

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Luke 2:10-11

blessings to you this holiday season, dear ones!  much, much love.