Our family photo is a pretty accurate description of our life this year: messy and very sweet.
This year wasn’t just full of messy moments, it was also full of blessed ones! In 2015, Shane and I celebrated 5 years of marriage, the twins’ 1st Birthday, and another grace-filled year of youth ministry. The twins learned to walk, and are now running in 2 different directions. We parents are enjoying the exercise and adventure of getting to know Titus and Evangeline more each day.
We continue to sing and make music together as a family. Evi joins in with her joyful chirps and Titus cannot be ten-seconds away from his ukulele, which he strums proudly.
A summer full of camping and road trips with the twins gave us a chance to explore our world with fresh eyes and renewed excitement. The twins come alive around their favorite people: both sets of grandparents and the entire youth group/college ministry students. God has truly blessed our family through such welcoming community.
This season, we are reminded that Perfection was born right in the mess of our humanity. He denied his rights to get on our level: our exhausting, sin-filled, fractured mess. His holiness did not deserve death, like the rest of us. However, Jesus took death in our place, providing perfection to us in exchange for our self-inflicted destruction. His power to rise from death—our deserved death—gives us confidence of victory.
By trusting in Christ, we have freedom from exhaustion of constant failure. We can find wholeness and restoration in our relationships. And we gain peace with God that will last forever! This salvation does not just affect our eternity, it affects our today. We have days in which the kids dump baking soda on the floor, or undo the freshly folded laundry, or spill one more supposedly-leak-proof sippy cup…but these are also days that are filled with sweet snuggles and joyful giggles. The hope from Christ fills each moment when we set our minds on Him.
Thanks for celebrating each messy wonderful moment with us!