Hello to all! What a gorgeous Sunday we are having today. I love this weather. Snow falling, 20 degrees outside, Pro football championship games, hot coffee and comfortable sweat pants. As I watch the snow falling I think of the place I am from, the state I currently live in, Michigan. I was reading in Genesis this week and enjoying the time line of the beginning of the world. I read about the tower of babel. Something hit me and really sank in. It was something I have read many times before, but this time held new meaning. In Genesis Chapter 11 verse 8 it says, So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth. All the people created up until that point lived on one continent and shared a common language. When God confused their language and scattered them, they ending up living all over the globe. In the snows of the north, the humidity of the tropics and the heat of the desert southwest. My ancestors came to America and eventually Michigan from what is now Germany and possibly some from the British Isles. It is part of who I am my origin, but it doesn't define me. My value is in Christ and who he can mold me into. The builders of the tower of Babel wanted their identity separate from God they wanted to "build a name for themselves", they in essence wanted to be God. I am a Michigander, an American, a citizen of the world, a wife, a mother, I drive a used Ford mini van, I have three beautiful kids, I love watching birds, I am an R.N. and I love good coffee. More importantly than any of these things I am an adopted daughter of the King of Kings. I pray that it is that fact that defines me and how I define others. I don't need a name for myself. I have a name I am a Christian. He is my all in all. My definition is in him. All that is good in my life is from him. The world may define me as one thing, a mom and a stay at home wife. I ask you to look at Christ first and then see me through him. Michigan is a great place to be from, but that also doesn't define me. At least not the real me. That Crystal is hidden in Christ and longs for him to continue to shape me into the Crystal he would have me to be. One dictionary definition for the word define is - to give form or meaning to- an example being "For Crystal life is defined by Christ". Just some food for thought on a snowy winter day. God Bless, Crystal
