"IT IS FINISHED!"

I am VERY VERY pleased to announce that I am OFFICIALLY on Christmas break! (And for those of you keeping up with the posts, it means I finished Spanish! With a full attempt not to complain! Including putting that sign up I was talking about) You know, I entitled this blog "It is finished" for a lot of reasons... One of them was DEFINITLY because hey, I really wanted to be done with finals and school and etc... But I think the biggest reason for it was the thought of where those words come from, and that would be the Bible (The B-I-B-L-E yes thats the book for me... HA HA! it is the truth!) As i thought about I thought more about how those words were the reason for Christmas, With the "Big Day" approaching (Evidenced especially by the lack of parking at malls, screaming children not quite patient as they wait for Santa, and loud bells outside of Wal-Marts everywhere...) people sooo often forget that there is soooooooo much more... and even if they do acknowledge Jesus' birth as told by the excellent movie in theaters now The Nativity Story they often leave Jesus as "a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger..." and forget that the whole reason he came didn't come about for another 33 years! and wasn't in a manger, but was on "an old rugged cross" after constant beatings that left him unrecognizable as a human, after mock trials, and so many other forms of torture we cannot even comprehend... People like to accept the beginning and dismiss the grown up-baby's full purpose... and that was to restore a close relationship with the Father... And to "seek and save the lost..."The salvation story all begins with the Christmas story and that is only the beginning leading up to the "it is finished" part... I love Christmas even with the lines at the mall, the screaming children in them, the chiming bells, and even the frustrated people because it is the time of year that reminds me of the birth, life, death, and resurrection of the Savior of the world! And it gives the perfect lead in to share the message of Hope this year... I praise the Father in heaven because He came as a Baby in a way that no other human has (a virgin birth)... I praise the fact that he made Himself nothing, that He did NOT lose his power but instead limited it to become the most helpless man He could be... I praise that he knows exactly what we go through because He has been there, and I seek to praise Him in all that I do... And I definitly praise Him for me finishing school for the semester! AMEN!