From Tusayan to Tucson

Happy 2010!! What a busy, crazy, but blessed time the holidays have been! I thought it might be difficult to get back into "real life", but it's actually feels kind of refreshing to get back into the swing of things. Christmas was wonderful, but I don't want it to stop. I am so overwhelmed with thankfulness for my Savior and all that He did! I don't want the miracle of his birth, the example of His life, and the redeeming power of His work on the cross to ever "wear off". To be honest, the realization of all that He did and my thankfulness for it has been building probably more so after the holidays. I am so ashamed and grieved to admit that it happened to me...the business of all that comes with Christmas swallowed much of my time meditating on His Word and praying to my Savior. No matter how much I was reminded by others and God's Word of the importance of keeping Him first, and of remembering exactely who we celebrate, I failed and got distracted.

Praise God for His forgiveness! Sometimes that sounds too easy...I feel like I should be punished for my lack of worship and love...I feel like I'm supposed to feel guilty for a long time for messing up...but WOW! That's NOT what God wants for us! He has died for all my sins, and wants me to accept His forgiveness! He wants me to come to the foot of the cross in repentance, and then LEAVE it all there! He loves me just the same, even when I leave Him for other pursuits! THAT is why I am overwhelmed with thankfulness...once I saw my ugly sin for what it was, I saw the beauty of what He has done for me....Even when I leave my first love, he never lets me go...and will never! The power of the cross is FAR greater than any sin I could ever commit!

Ok....on to the beginning of our wonderful time away. On the 21st of December, Aaron, Linnea and I headed to Tusayan, Arizona...a town near the south rim of the Grand Canyon. I had never been before, so we thought it would be a wonderful place to spend some time together just the three of us...and it was breathtaking. I stood there feeling so tiny at the edge of the Grand Canyon, and yet I realize that the God who created the Grand Canyon, is SO much bigger than it...and that same God who is SO big and powerfull sent His son in the form of a tiny, helpless baby to die on a cross...to save me...a vapor. He has saved me from hell and given me citizenship in heaven! What AMAZING love!!

Beautiful things like the Grand Canyon are a testimony of the great power of God and of his desire for us to enjoy his creation. To think that some things may have been created simply for us to see and enjoy God's creative beauty is incredible, and a wonderful gift I don't want to take advantage of!

AND...God could have just let us enjoy the Grand Canyon, but he decided to put a huge cherry on top...or shall I say lots of snow? It snowed...and snowed...and snowed. And it was BEAUTIFUL...We had an early white Christmas and I was praising the Lord for it. We actually couldn't even see the Grand Canyon the first day because of the snow, but thankfully it cleared up the last morning we were there.

We will have to bring her back someday when she knows what she was looking at :)

And on to Tucson we went....we'll save that for later....