O Holy Night

     I'm not much into Christmas music. (Don't be mad at me!) I feel like it always starts way too soon-sometimes before Thanksgiving has even happened! So I kind of boycott it for awhile, at least until mid-December. Sounds kind of Grinch-y, right? I have friends (who will remain nameless) that would probably listen to it all year round or at least beginning in the summer if they thought no one would judge them. Maybe on some level I envy their Christmas spirit. But for whatever reason it takes me some time to get into the Christmas mood. 


     A few weeks ago, I went with my roommate to her church and of course there were Christmas songs and in the middle of singing "O Holy Night," I felt the impact of what Christ's birth really meant for all creation. I love the first verse that says "long lay the world in sin and error pining. Till He appeared and the soul felt it's worth." But the part that caused me to catch my breath, just a little, is this line-"Truly He taught us to love one another, His law is love and His gospel is peace. Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother. And in His name all oppression shall cease." In His name, ALL oppression shall cease. I cannot wait for this day. All throughout the Bible, God points to a new day where things will be made right. I cling to this truth. Because so many years ago, Christ came as a baby, because of His sacrifice, his choice to enter this world as a human, to become like us so that He could have a relationship with us, because of THIS, all oppression will cease. Wow. 


     There are so many other great Christmas songs with beautiful lyrics and it has been fun over the last few weeks to really worship while singing these songs. I know we are past Thanksgiving, but today on Christmas Eve, I am thankful that I am with my family. My family, who this year, gave money to sweet refugee families that I know instead of spending ridiculous amounts of money on each other. My brother, who made sure that his friend from Liberia had groceries and phone cards so that he could talk to his family who still lives in Liberia. I am thankful for my small group girls who bought candy to give out at our Christmas party. I am thankful that tomorrow I get to go on a road trip to Florida with my dad so that we can see my grandparents who have taught me so much about what it means to love Jesus and to see my Brittany whom I love so much.  


     Most of all I am thankful for this truth: 

"The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; 

on those living in the land of darkness; a light has dawned. 

For a Child will be born to us, a son will be given to us,

and the government will be on His shoulders. He will be named 

Wonderful Counselor, Might God, Eternal Father,

Prince of Peace. The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity

will never end. He will reign on the throne of David

and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice

and righteousness from now on and forever. 

The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this."

Isaiah 9:2, 6-7

Merry Christmas Y'all! Praying that Jesus reminds you of His love for you this day! 

P.S. My dad just walked into the room while I'm typing and gave me the book "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp. I am super excited!! I have heard excellent things about this. Book review coming up in a few posts? Maybe. 

A Very Merry Vickery Christmas

     This past Thursday night my roomie and I had a Christmas party in our apartment. We might have invited close to 90 people (and that was just on Facebook) and by "we" I mean me...Rach invited folks of course, but I just hate the thought of leaving anyone out so I kept adding people to the list. Thankfully as I told Rach would happen, not all 90 people came. But a lot of kiddos came. Several of the teenage boys that used to live here got a ride with one of our neighbors and came which was so great to be able to see them. There were people from Nepal, Burma, Africa and the United States. 

(Some background info-I live in a low-income apartment complex where many refugees are re-settled upon arriving in the United States for the first time. I live here on purpose. And I love it! There are several reasons why I choose to live here which I will go into more detail about in another post, but I just wanted to put that out there so my posts make a little more sense.) 

                             Sa Ron and some of her children. Such a sweet woman. 

     So our Christmas party was a little bit like a tiny United Nations or something to that effect. Several of our friends from small group came as well as neighbors of ours from church that also live in this apartment complex. My next door neighbors came for a little while-they are from Nepal and so sweet. We had cookie decorating going on and fun snacks to eat. At one point we had a friend who offered to play guitar. He played a couple of Christmas songs and ended with the song "Mighty to Save." It was beautiful. Especially the part in the song that says "Everyone needs forgiveness, the kindness of a Savior, the hope of nations." I teared up a little during that part of the song, thinking of all the nations represented in our apartment in that moment and knowing the opportunity I have on a daily basis to love others like Jesus and to tell His story to them. Do I always do that? No, definitely not. But I am thankful that he shows me his grace and grants me more opportunities. The Christmas party was full of games of Uno, Go Fish and even ended with a flute solo by one of our eighth graders. (He was awesome!) It was a really great evening-so worth all the spills and cookie crumbles. My small group girls were amazing-they provided tons of candy so we could give those out as goodie bags, which the kids loved! I am super blessed to have friends (and my roomie especially) who love on these kids and provide a great example to them. 

                                    Cookie Decorating!! (a little messy...)

Intro

     I have been thinking about starting a blog for a little while now but it is pretty intimidating to think about especially when lately I have become somewhat of an avid blog reader. And there are some amazing ones out there! However, with a little encouragement from friends and family, I'm doing this! I am excited to share my life in a written format-mostly so I can read back over this and remember the sweet, funny things that happen in my life on a daily basis. (Because if you know me, you know my memory is...well, bad.) I also think this will be therapeutic for me to write out the thoughts going on in my head and process them out loud or at least on this blog. I work in foster care, live in an apartment complex with refugees who are new to America and sometimes it is overwhelming knowing all the needs that are out there. I would not trade my life for anything-I love seeing Jesus meet needs and bring families and children together. I get to see Jesus provide for people all of the time and it is amazing! So most of what I write about will be foster kiddos, refugees and other random things that cross my mind that I may decide to explore via this blog. Get excited!


     It took a few days to figure out a name for this blog. I had one kind of picked out, but a friend of mine actually used the same name for her blog a few years ago...so I asked people to help me figure out a  name that was cute, catchy, not too shallow..you know, all the characteristics of a good blog name. Top contenders were "Where is my chapstick?," "Speaking of Crazy," and "I heart Brad Paisley." Finally after many texts and phone calls with my brother, asking his opinion on these ideas and hearing "nah...," I said "I just really want to use the word grace and the word crazy." And he said "what about...A Crazy Kind of Grace?" And I loved it!! Because Jesus' grace is crazy, as in, it doesn't make sense and I do NOT deserve it at all, but He gives it just the same. And I feel like I am always being shown grace whether it is from Jesus himself or awesome friends/family who show me grace on a daily basis. So that is the story of my blog name... Thanks Andrew!