Christmas Back East

Dear Family and Friends,

Joy to you all! I would love to share the most exciting year of my life with you! This year in late May, I had a "God-Stop"! I was surprised to be told I had breast cancer. After the normal, to-be-expected shock wore off, God had my full and complete attention. I learned so many things. Thankfully, I was able to have surgery and they were able to remove the cancer. Our family is grateful.

This Christmas we will go back to NY to visit my family. That was home for my first 23 years. We will even be with my parents at the home that I moved to when I was 7 years old. Even now my mind is filled with precious memories. That is where my ideas on God and family were forged. Those are my "roots". What a priveledge to still have my parents, my siblings and that home. My children have run up and down those same steps that I once did. They play in the same backyard and listen to my musings on my childhood.

Who I am began "back East" in a town on Long Island. Who I have become is because of what happened "back East" in the little town of Bethlehem. Even though I had the perfect childhood, I still was very needy. I just was not good enough for heaven. My good was always trying to outweigh my bad. But the older I got the more the scales were tipped in the wrong direction. I realized my sin made it necessary for me to need a savior. The Bible says that God sent his son Jesus to this world, not to condemn us but that through Him we might be saved. That is the wonder of Christmas. Jesus, who had no sin, took my sin and yours and paid the penalty of sin. His whole life purpose was to free us from our sin and show us the way to God. When I understood what Jesus did, my life changed. It was not overnight! I sometimes wonder what an older follower of Jesus may have thought about me back in those early days of "knowing Christ"! I remember my first Chrismas after really understanding what Christ had done for me. I was sure that others must have noticed how different things were! I always loved the Christmas songs but that year they were packed with meaning--especially the really old ones. Growing up my family would decorate the tree on Christmas Eve and sing songs. I loved that. I can remember all of us singing "O Little Town of Bethlehem" while my mom pin-curled my hair. There was something sacred about that song. "...so God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven..." Now I understood it! The first Christmas gift ever given!! Jesus came to give us life-a new life--what a gift--a chance to do it all over again the way God planned!

Jesus is what makes this a wonderful time of year. Our best or worst memories cannot change the past. But Jesus can change our now and our future. Being convinced of this can make this the best year of your life!!

This is what I have prayed for you:
"More than anything else, O God, I pray that You will prosper my loved ones with an understanding of what You did for them and who You really are. If they can handle some ease and earthly success in the process, so be it. But whatever they do, O God, let them understand the lasting joy of living for Christ. Amen

---------------Here is the life God has for you-----------------------

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16

HAVE THE MOST WONDER-FILLED CHRISTMAS EVER THIS YEAR!! Love, Teresa