Thursday, December 25, 2008

MERRY CHRISTMAS
I trust that everybody had a wonderful and blessed Christmas. I know I had an experience like never before. It was truly a blessing to me.
This afternoon my family and I along with others from the jail ministry went into the jail to pass out cookies and candy to the inmates. Some of you know how much I love going into the jail and how much I miss it when I'm at college. Normally we go into the chapel in the jail and the inmates come to us, I've never been into the actual cell blocks before. We went into each block and stood in a line as one of several people who were former inmates told the current inmates why we were there because we loved them, and knew that this was a very hard time for them to be alone, and that there is no other place that we could imagine being, which is the honest truth. We would all be in a line and the prisoners would line up and we would pass out the goodies and give them all hugs and/or handshakes. Some of those men and women wept, they couldn't thank us enough. I went into that jail to be a blessing, and came out feeling like one of the most blessed people in the world.
I've had people ask me if the inmates ever scare me. The answer is always a resounding NO!!!! I look at those inmates, not as inmates but as people just like me, who made bad choices and as a result their choices sent them to jail. Some of them didn't have the opportunity to grow up in a home like mine, they literally grew up in a hell hole, they weren't taught right from wrong. Others did grow up much like I did, but as they got older chose to make mistakes, and as a result God, as their loving Father is chastening them. They are no less a person just because they are in jail, if it weren't for God's grace I'd be in the jail right now with them. Praise the Lord for His grace and love.
Other than jail we really didn't do much. We of course ate our delicious cinnamon rolls for breakfast. :) After jail we came home and made soft pretzels. I shaped one of mine as a snowman, mom took a picture of it, but it is on her camera, I'll get it from her and post it tomorrow. They were good as well. :)
I hope that everybody had a very merry Christmas and that you took a moment to reflect on the True Reason for the season, and remembered the fact that Jesus was born to die on Calvary for all of our sins.

1 comment:

Amanda said...

Merry Christmas to you, too! Sounds like you had a remarkable day! So did I--I have found that holidays turn into wonderful times when you focus on Christ and not yourself! =)