The 'Final' Days
Three exams down, and two more to go. In five days, I'll be sitting at home...I can hardly wait. And then Jeffy and Antonia will be here, and Scott will eventually arrive. I sure love Christmas, we even had a surprise Christmas party here last week. Our parents sent us a little gift, and our dorms sat around a christmas tree and opened them and just hung out. Thankfully Santa and Mrs. Claus made an appearance, so it made the evening perfect.

So, during a spare study moment, Rika introduced me to Wikipedia.com - which she described as the most unreliable encyclopedia around. I guess it's pretty fun because it allows you to edit and add things to the info yourself. But we looked at some random topics, like Mario Smash Brothers. We read the title in Japanese, and found a liking to the word 'sumasshu' = smash. Kari then, who wanted to procrastinate from studying, made Rika and I this lovely little surprise picture, of us and our nintendo friends. One of the most random things I think I've seen, but it made me laugh.

It's strange to think that a semester is almost done...it's been good. Full of challenges but also awesome blessings, especially Hanbanan. It's been so rad living with her and having our random fun, and growing together, with encouragement and prayer. It makes me excited for spring semester.

Candace and I went to a ladies dessert night that my friend Tracy was hosting earlier this week, and I found it really encouraging. The speaker spoke on the gift of Christmas, which a lot of sermons are on at this time of year, but she made it connect in my heart more than it has before. She described what Bethlehem would have most likely been like, a hustling bustling place, overcrowded with people, not enough places for people to sleep. Most of the people wouldn't have been too happy, especially with taxes being placed on them, and being forced to return to their home towns for the census, definitely not a nice place for a young pregnant teen. The little stable would have been gross and dirty, yet this was where God chose to have His precious son born. God could have waited a few months until the crazy census stuff was finished, or had Jesus born into a palace, but instead, he picked a small ordinary stable with a humble young girl and a loyal man. What touched me the most, is that it's such a picture of God's love for us. He sent Jesus to be born into a place that could be considered the 'lowest of the low', and this is also where Christ meets us in our lives. He doesn't wait until we have our lives all beautiful and pulled together nicely, but He meets and loves us when we're falling apart, dirty, unworthy, when we feel like we're at our lowest point. So I was humbled and thankful that the King of kings doesn't overlook us when we're broken and feel ruined, but He lifts us out from that. Definitely a cool reminder to be thinking of during this sweet holiday.
3 more days and I'm heading home!