Looking Back and Looking Forward

Jesus came to this earth, born as a baby, at just the right time.   It was the time appointed long before by God, the Ancient of Days.   God, because of His unfathomable love for people, told them about the Messiah who was to come and how they must prepare themselves.   They were looking forward to the coming of the Son of God, the Savior of the world.

Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in! (Psalm 24:7)

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Today we look back on the birth of Jesus with joy, knowing that God fulfilled His promise by sending His Son, who not only grew from a boy into a man, but most importantly died and rose again to reconcile people to God.

What’s on my mind this morning is that Christmas is a time to look back and remember that remarkable event, but we do it while also looking forward.   Because the story isn’t over.

For Christ will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him…For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay. (Hebrews 9:28 and 10:37)

The Son of God is coming again!   He will come and make all things new!   Let’s celebrate by both remembering and looking forward.

The Thanksgiving Giere Classic

It’s important to establish family traditions, so this Thanksgiving weekend, we embarked on a new one: the Thanksgiving morning Giere 5K Classic.

Peter and my Mom baked the post-race (or for those of us who couldn’t wait that long, the pre-race) meal.

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Then we strapped on our running shoes and got ready to run. My mom brought official bib numbers, which made us all feel Very Important. (Next year, timing chips?)

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Since we didn’t really know the area, we had to study Google Maps to figure out where we should run.

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My Dad (the race official) sounded the whistle, and we were off. We ran two by two…

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The weather was quite snowy, which made for a beautiful backdrop, however not ideal conditions for running. I don’t think anyone followed the agreed upon course since visibility was a challenge through the big snowflakes. But everyone made it back to the house, excited to have participated in the first ever Giere Classic!

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The wet snow had an effect on our bib numbers. Next year we may affectionately rename the run the Smeary Classic.

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