Merry Christmas, 2012

Merry Christmas,

My heart is sobered and illuminated this precious time of year.

I am basking in five children still living at home, but sobered by the responsibilities of learning to live with adult children and in finding a changing parenting role.

Katie will be 22 in March and has a full life of her own ministering to junior high kids at church, and taking final classes to prepare for a masters in education. Rachel (19) ploughs through WSU classes like genetics and organic chemistry with tenacity, earning superior grades. Anna (17) completes her heavy-duty senior year at Homelink with her brothers. Richard (15) creates meticulous works of art, and Samuel (13) moves from boy to naturally cool teen, but still declares that being a kind person is of great importance. I am immensely proud of my kids.

Rick starts a management job for Jackson-Hewitt in a few weeks.  He has shone as the teacher’s favorite in his tax class and anticipates a six-minute drive to work.  His volunteering at a local food bank also gave him satisfaction. We are thankful.

Along with my job at Legacy, teaching parents-to-be, I still do some homeschooling.  The younger three kids and I have been deep into Genesis this year, enjoying great discussions and meaningful projects. I sense this season of my life winding down, and prayerfully ruminate on the next step of the journey.

This year has been a year of significant farewells. My Dad, Milton Ahola, died in April after a lengthy war with cancer.  What an empty chair when we sit at table with Mom.  Grandma Ruth Ahola also left our earth at 96 this fall.  Our constant matriarch is gone, and the wind blows a little colder without her.

But, I have a great hope that this sweet world is not all there is.  New nephew Owen (Matthew’s first child) reminds me that there are many things to celebrate. Our Christmas baby Jesus, humbly arrived, finished his earthly season as the sovereign of those who will let the Kingdom of God be within them.  A Savior was born, 2000 years ago. And each of us, those who seem to have it altogether, those who creep through deep struggles, and everyone in between, are welcome to be part of His purpose.  As a follower of Jesus, I celebrate forgiveness deeply, and I rejoice in the purpose of knowing Christ, growing to emulate Him, and looking forward to eternity in Heaven.

I am freshly done with the book, Bonhoeffer, by Eric Metaxas.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer lived and died, dedicated to godly principles, in the middle of the dark Nazi era. The artwork above is the same one he sent to fellow pastors, believing, “The picture seems quite timely to me: Christmas amid the rubble.”

Is there rubble around you? In you? This has been a challenging year for our nation.  I am so glad that the Prince of Peace comes in the middle of our celebrations and sorrows, our magnificence and our messes, meeting us where we are.  He then builds something beautiful of our lives, blending all that God has placed in us naturally, and adding whatever it is that we lack, provided in miraculous ways.

This morning we sang Christmas songs at church, and this one captured me, after a year of all sorts of turmoil.

Oh, come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Oh, bid our sad divisions cease,
And be yourself our King of Peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!

Whatever your divisions or turmoils, Jesus will come, when welcomed, and be your King of Peace.

Bonhoeffer wrote, “If Christmas time cannot ignite within us again something like a love for holy theology, so that we—captured and compelled by the wonder of the manger of the Son of God—must reverently reflect on the mysteries of God, then it must be that the glow of the divine mysteries has also been extinguished in our heart and has died out.”

Let Christ ignite your heart with hope this December, and in the year to come.

Yours, for the Boneski Family,

April