{"id":6246,"date":"2012-12-25T15:20:50","date_gmt":"2012-12-25T20:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=6246"},"modified":"2012-12-25T15:20:50","modified_gmt":"2012-12-25T20:20:50","slug":"i-want-to-see-up-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=6246","title":{"rendered":"I Want to See Up Close"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This past Sunday morning our family enjoyed the opportunity to participate in the Candlelight Christmas service at Cedarcrest Church<\/a>.\u00a0 We haven’t been able to do this in a few years as we are normally travelling a good bit the few days before Christmas.\u00a0 However, this year our first family Christmas wasn’t to start until Sunday afternoon, so we were all set.\u00a0 The Christmas Candlelight service started at 11am and all of the kids were invited to come.\u00a0 We got to church early as Clint was serving as a deacon.\u00a0 Emma and I found our seats and got ready for a fun and special time of worship.\u00a0 Rather than sitting still by me, Emma was set on sitting by herself on the very front row so she could see what was going on.\u00a0 She was so well-behaved sitting on the front row like a girl much older than 4 years old…I didn’t bother her.\u00a0 At one point, she came and asked me a question during one of the songs.\u00a0 I asked her if she wanted to sit with me.\u00a0 She smiled at me and said “Mommy…I want to see up close.”<\/p>\n

What a powerful reminder of what Christmas is all about.\u00a0 Our Pastor, George Wright, reminded us Sunday that “Christmas is truly the story of Christ coming down to the middle of our mess”.\u00a0 Christmas is the opportunity for us to “see up close” what love is all about.\u00a0 Christmas is the story of love coming down to meet the needs of a sinful and broken people.\u00a0 I am so grateful that God put a desire in the heart of my sweet Emma to “want to see up close.”\u00a0 I pray that will always be the desire of her heart!<\/p>\n

Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
\nby: Charles Wesley<\/p>\n

Come, Thou long expected Jesus
\nBorn to set Thy people free;
\nFrom our fears and sins release us,
\nLet us find our rest in Thee.
\nIsrael’s strength and consolation,
\nHope of all the earth Thou art;
\nDear desire of every nation,
\nJoy of every longing heart.<\/p>\n

Born Thy people to deliver,
\nBorn a child and yet a King,
\nBorn to reign in us forever,
\nNow Thy gracious kingdom bring.
\nBy Thine own eternal Spirit
\nRule in all our hearts alone;
\nBy Thine all sufficient merit,
\nRaise us to Thy glorious throne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This past Sunday morning our family enjoyed the opportunity to participate in the Candlelight Christmas service at Cedarcrest Church.\u00a0 We haven’t been able to do this in a few years as we are normally travelling a good bit the few days before Christmas.\u00a0 However, this year our first family Christmas wasn’t to start until Sunday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,22,12,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-study","category-cedarcrest-church","category-emma","category-truth"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}