Finding Joy in Christmas Cookies (and in Jesus)

Everyone has their own fun family traditions around the holidays. I have always LOVED my family's traditions, and last year I did my best to keep them up even though I was living on the other side of the world away from my family for the first time at Christmas. It just wasn't the same though, even if it was a special day.

This year The Lord whispered to my heart that maybe I was holding on to the traditions too tightly, creating unrealistic expectations and setting myself up for disappointment once again. So, this year I have been trying to make things special in their own Cambodian-style way, not necessarily throwing out my favorite traditions but being okay with starting new ones and tweaking others. Here are a few examples:

- On Christmas morning my family always has special little boxes of cereal and cran-apple or cran-grape juice. No cereal for me this year, but get some cranberry juice and grape juice, mix it together and there you have it: a familiar Christmas treat.

- My mother always makes a whole bunch of super amazing Christmas cookies that are absolutely the best ever. I knew there was no way I could reproduce that magic here, but that didn't mean throwing Christmas baking out the window all together! I managed to whip together a delightful batch of gingerbread cookies, full of all of the flavors of Christmas. I was also overjoyed when I realized we had all the ingredients to make homemade Turtles, a special candy we always liked to give my mom. This was made possible in large part due to the sweet Christmas gifts that were given to us by one of our supporting churches! Just for fun, I have included the recipe below.

- Christmas programs here are not really anything like they are in America, but that doesn't mean singing "Silent Night" or Khmer carols can't be special! This year I found joy in the fact that I could sing along, understand and read the words for myself. What a gift!

- We didn't necessarily watch many Christmas movies as a family, we normally opted for another genre that we enjoyed all together. Kristin and I have found a few new holiday favorites this year that give us the opportunity to experience snow and Christmas trees and presents through the screen! I think this will become one of our yearly traditions.

While it may be hard to be away from loved ones at Christmas, God is so good to give sweet gifts and moments that remind us that He is near.


Homemade Turtle Candies recipe
8 oz. pecan halves
25 caramel squares
1/4 cup cream or half-and-half
16. oz. chopped chocolate, melted (dark or milk)
sea salt, optional for sprinking

Line baking sheets or platters with parchment paper.

Make small piles of pecans, 5 or 6 per pile, overlapping to reduce gaps.

Melt caramels and cream over low heat, stirring frequently. The mixture will be runny at first but will firm up quickly. Add 1 tablespoon caramel to each pile of pecans.

Melt chocolate, and add 2 tablespoons to each candy.

Add a pinch of sea salt if desired.

Allow to firm up before serving. Store in the fridge or freezer (or at room temperature in an air-tight container if you don't live in the tropics).

I made a few candies using almonds (so as not to use up all our precious pecans). I also used a combination of dark and semi-sweet chocolate. If you like salty and sweet, adding just a hint of sea salt is so delicious! Also, you can melt the caramel and chocolate in the microwave if you are so inclined and if you own one, which we do not. Enjoy!

Happy Tummies, Happy Hearts

While I was home I got to spend time with my sister and her family, watching my nephew Caleb go through his daily routines. When he was hungry his cries punctured the air, growing in intensity until he got what he wanted. His tummy full, his face relaxed in contentment, he could be lulled to sleep or happy just to lay in your lap and watch your face.

We don't do well when we are hungry, do we? Problems seem bigger, we get irritated faster. I remember in college trying to make a decision with friends on whether to order pizza or brave the weather one snowy night and head over to the cafeteria for supper. What should have been a fairly simple decision was made more complicated by our rumbling tummies. It is hard to let the hunger sit for long before we open up the fridge, rustle in the cupboard, looking for something to satisfy us.

We do the same in our spirits too. We fill our days and our hearts and minds with things that drown out the hunger pains gnawing at our insides. Anything to take away the ache, to make us feel full. But the temporary fixes never satisfy for long, soon we are hungry again for something, anything that will make us happy.

Jesus longs to fill every crevice of our heart with all of His fullness. He is everything we long for, everything we need and He desires to ease our hunger pains with His Goodness, with all of who He is. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better (Ephesians 1:17). As God starts to fill us, the more we get to know Him the more we want to go deeper, to keep on knowing more. Like when we have a friend we think we know pretty well only to discover some super cool secret talent or passion we never would have guessed they have. We have only scratched the surface of understanding who God is, and He wants our hunger for Him to increase to know Him more.

...the fullness of him who fills everything in every way (Ephesians 1:23) I want God to uncover the layers of desire in my heart so that He can pour in all of His glorious riches to those places. I want to stop filling the hungry spots with things that will never satisfy and instead keep running to the One who can fill me with all of Himself, all of his fullness.

What Happened to the Miracles?

I was practicing the story of the 10 Commandments with a friend and he was full of questions. We discussed the ins and outs of God's powerful meeting with the Israelite people described in Exodus 19 and 20, how they had to get themselves ready, His display through the thunder and lightening and smoke-covered, quaking mountain. At the end he asked, "Why doesn't God do miracles today like He did then? Like the parting of the Red Sea, this encounter on Mount Sinai?"

Why doesn't God do miracles like this today? Consider with me the gifts and knowledge of God that we have now, that the Israelites didn't have. We have God's Word, the stories of His presence with the Israelite people, the instructions given throughout, the coming of Jesus to earth. If we want to know more about who God is, we can discover Him in the pages of the Bible. This band of former slaves leaving Egypt didn't have that. They knew God as He revealed Himself to them, and it was pretty important that they knew He was the God above all gods, God all-powerful. He intersected with their lives through these powerful encounters, the miracles He performed for them. This wasn't the only way He got His message across, but it was one of the big ways the Israelites and others learned who He was.

Just because we have God's Word, does that mean miracles have gone by the wayside? I would say no. I hear stories of God's mighty work in people's lives, stories of His touch of healing, His provision out of nowhere. How else can you explain a woman who comes to Christ, who has never in her life been able to read, who prays and suddenly she can read God's written Word? How else do you explain a man on his death bed who surrenders to Christ, decides to love Jesus whether he lives or dies?  Everyone had given up hope, there was no more the doctors could do. Last weekend he climbed up on the stage to testify to God's power and healing touch, his body restored, his faith strong. When Jesus shows Himself in dreams and visions in the places where preaching is not allowed, where punishment and persecution awaits a commitment to Jesus. I believe God is still performing miracles because He wants to show up, to show His heart and desire to draw people to Himself. While my friend didn't see it, didn't want to acknowledge it, we can't miss God's intersection with us in big ways and little ones.

Playing Tug-of-War with the Joy-stealers

Psalm 123:1-2 I lift up my eyes to you, to you whose throne is in heaven. As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to The Lord our God, till he shows us mercy. 

Every single day, just about every moment, we are bombarded by joy-stealers trying to wrap their little tentacles around our hearts and pull the joy right out of us. They might take the form of a calendar filled to the brim, a broken-down washing machine and piled up dishes, unmet expectations, the completely mundane and ordinary and the incredibly tragic and heart-breaking. We can be skipping along whistling a tune when out of nowhere along comes a joy-stealer to trip us up.

I have had my share of joy-stealers this week, at moments letting them win, and other times playing tug-of-war with them. No, you may not have my joy, thank you! In the midst of it all, I made the journey with the Israelites up to Jerusalem, up through the Psalms of Ascent (Psalm 120-134), and I was reminded of this important truth. My position is to look up- because God is God, and I am not. Who am I to wave around my placard demanding my rights, my way, like some demonstrator in a big rally, declaring all of this is utterly unfair? The creator of heaven and earth, the God who puts things in motion and sets up kings and governments, who brings the rain and changes the seasons, this God redeemed me from the pit and gave me life. Who am I to demand anything of Him, to give Him complaints instead of praise? He shows mercy, He gives His joy in the midst of the everyday trials and endurance for the hardship. I need to keep looking up, keep my eyes on Him and remember my position. In this I can rejoice!

In spite of the joy-stealers, God's grace was still evident in the gifts that He has given this week.

- The breeze that cools the air and makes the hot days more tolerable
- Hugs from sweet friends who missed us
- Kristin's homemade runzas (if you don't know what a runza is, you probably aren't from Nebraska- so check it out here)
- Beautiful picture of a lighthouse to the nations- praying this for Cambodia
- Sister book club
- The beauty of Christmas music
- Sipping a velvety papaya smoothie and catching up with a sweet friend

Psalm 125:1 Those who trust in The Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever. 

Check out more posts on Rejoicing over at Velvet Ashes!