Christmas Blessings from our family in Costa Rica!
As we approach the celebration of Jesus’ birth and the end of this year, my heart always processes the struggle of really taking it all in.
Even in a slower paced 3rd world country, one can so easily get swept up in the activity of life and its urgencies.
My heart’s cry is always the same, “I don’t want to miss You!”
As Christmas draws nearer and nearer…
I hear The Lord releasing a call to let love invade…
To give love permission to invade in every area.
To quite simply…
Make space to embrace love.
Wasn’t this the main problem during the first Christmas???
There just simply wasn’t room in the midst of all the chaos for Love to be birthed?
Our family continues to learn each day.
We continue to be stretched as we constantly recognize in this life we control very little.
But of this I am certain…
We are empowered to control the degree in which we love. 
The questions I hear Him whispering over and over again as we journey…
How profoundly am I willing to be loved…
How vulnerable am I willing to be in order to be fiercely loved?
Love is risky business…
But it should be our first focus and greatest occupation, if we are to minister as Jesus did.
In saying this…
We cannot begin to express how thankful we are for the love and support you continue to show us.
It is because of you, we can rest and remember that God sees us. 
When we feel alone and even lost at times…
God so often uses one of you to share a timely word, a prayer…
And our favorite…
Sending some of you to come and serve alongside.
You continue to teach us more and more about love as you reproduce His love to us.
The end of another season is upon us, and I see life moving at a most incomprehensible pace.
I pause and recount in awe and gratitude the love that is poured into us…
As we see scripture unfolding to us through you.
His faithfulness…
It’s Christ in you…
His love, His HOPE of GLORY that humbles us day in and day out.
My forever prayer is our family will reflect the same extravagance to our beloved ones here.
That we too are offering them a new level of faith, hope and expectation.
The invitation I receive I share with you…
Will you make room for love this Christmas season?
Will you make room in the “inns” of your heart to let love invade?
In vulnerability, will you receive?
Will you freely give of your heart especially when all feels risky?
This is the miracle of Christmas…
Our Almighty God, Love in the flesh, chose to need love.
He humbled Himself in the most risky form and relied on the love and care of a young teenage woman.
Our 100% God chose to be 100% needy.
He chose to allow Himself to be deeply wounded for the sake of love.
May the Church be an exact duplicate of this love. 
Would we be willing to love in the wildest, craziest most ridiculous ways!
Would we carry His very heartbeat offering family connection.
Thank you for teaching us more about Jesus!
Thank you for believing in us when we forget to believe in ourselves
.
Thank you for choosing nearness and for being a part of what God has invited us to do here in Cost Rica…
To love with our lives.
May Jesus Himself reveal His love so intimately and personally to you.
You are His beloved!
Advent Blessings of risky love,
The Backwards Missionaries!
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