dear readers,

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Christmas never gets old for me. I'm pretty sure I said "I love Christmas!" with a little sigh of happiness more than ten times yesterday. People have told me that I'll lose my excitement for Christmas as I get older, but honestly I don't see it happening any time soon. :) I love that in a busy world filled with people focused on themselves and their tasks, we can lay that all aside and take one day to slow down and focus on each other and most importantly focus on Jesus, the true meaning of Christmas. I love thinking about Heaven and what they do on Christmas - whether they celebrate with us or whether every day in Heaven is like Christmas. Seriously, just think about that. If Christmas is "heaven on earth" for me here, just imagine what Christmas would be like IN Heaven! Woow!

A friend asked me this recently what my favorite Christmas carol was. I think I told her O Holy Night, but since then I've realized that wasn't true. Last night as my church's Christmas Eve service I stood on stage I sang the lyrics to Oh, Come, All Ye Faithful and was floored. "Oh, come, let us adore him!" Not, oh come let us clap to him, come let us thank him, or even come let us praise him. It says ADORE. I want to adore Jesus. I want to flat out love and honor him more every Christmas. Jesus wasn't just a baby, he was my Savior, he IS my Savior.

Come, let us adore him!

With love,
Lydia Jane

I'm doing something different right now. I'm writing this post because I never want to forget this night. This has nothing to do with photography - I'm just in awe and want to share that with as many people as I can.

I have a little confession to make. I'm in a musical. I hate mentioning this to my clients because I think I appear to most of you as a photographer who just goes around with her camera attached to her forehead snapping photos of everything. As awesome as that would be, haha, I don't! But as embarrassed as I am about this "other life" I live, I still love it. I love to act. I LOVE to sing. But honestly, I'm not that good at either of them. I just love using the little bit that I do have to praise my God. See, I'm not on some off-broadway or even a college show! I'm in a show at my church. My church is big so it feels like bigger than a "church play", but really it's just a bunch of kids in their twenties coming together for three months during the summer to put on a show about God. An amazing woman in my church named Cathy Mays wrote this play about the book of Acts in the New Testament and it is packed full of God's word basically word for word out of the Bible. I knew it was a great play when it started, but I had completely forgotten how GREAT God is.

Tonight...well tonight was just a night I will never forget. A little background: We only have three performances of this show on this weekend (last one is tomorrow). Quick summary: Last night aka opening night...was a train wreck. Technically and energetically it was weak. BUT GOD being rich in mercy used this to humble the cast and crew and turned this night into the most amazing experience. We were able to tell the story of Acts, the story of God working in his disciples after Jesus' death and resurrection, the story of their burning passion to see Jesus' name and the gospel shared with everyone even if it meant giving up their lives to do it! God met us powerfully. We walked backstage after the show not amazed at the improvement we had made on the show (because, although there was improvement, we still made our mistakes!), but amazed at the way God met us each individually during the show and made it REAL to us. What followed was about 30-45 minutes of the cast sitting on the floor sobbing, laughing, worshiping our God. We prayed that God would use this story to effect others, we thanked Him for his faithfulness, we knelt in awe of his presence. None of us wanted to move. I have never experienced anything like it before. It was incredible.

I was so overwhelmed to have been able to be in this show, to have so many genuine friendships centered on God and His gospel not on popularity or other superficial things, to have been chosen to KNOW God at all!!! Friends, God is AMAZING! If you're reading this and wondering what's gotten into me, it's that I want to share with you how powerful, how majestic, how real God is. He has met me in the most amazing way tonight, through a summer musical at my church. Haha, I can't wait to see how He will meet me in Heaven! I can't wait to resume the same position I was in tonight, bent down in worship of Him who sent his only son, Jesus, to die on a cross in excruciating pain because He loved us so much that he wanted to save us! Why! How! Lord God, I can't wait to marvel at this mystery one day with You.

I love the lyrics of this song:

Majesty, Majesty
Your grace has found me just as I am
Empty handed, but alive in your hands
Majesty, Majesty
Forever I am changed by your love
In the presence of your Majesty
-Delirious?

God, thank you for the presence of your Holy Spirit and how you sent it down on me tonight. Praise, praise, praise be to You!

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time." - 1 peter 1: 3-5