As some of you know, this year wasn’t exactly my favorite. I lost my beloved Sarah, and that pretty much made me want to skip Christmas altogether (it doesn’t help that her birthday is December 28th). Every year I make a photo card with her and Lucy, and I just wasn’t sure that I’d be up for making one without her. It was REALLY hard, but I decided that despite the sadness and pain of this year, it was more important to remember that I am still blessed. I still have the option of choosing JOY, so that’s what I’m trying to focus on.
Since it was hard to make myself do it at all, I tried to keep the design pretty simple. This year’s card is a 5″ round ornament with red twine. The front has the definition of joy (I’m kind of nerd – I collect antique dictionaries when I run across them, so I created this version from a compilation of resources I had on hand). The back is my own version of the definition: JOY is not measured in things. It is measured in the presence of love, endurance of faith, and abundance of hope. (No matter what I’ve lost this year, I still have a good amount of love in my life, faith that God has great things in store for me, and the hope that more happiness in the future exists.) As you can see, I decided on black envelopes (my slight nod to the darkness of this year).
My wish for all of you and yours is JOY in 2014!
“Rejoice in the Lord always: again I will say, Rejoice!” – Phillippians 4:4
