comfort and joy.

My daughter comforted me in my bed last night. I woke her up crying from a bad dream; she asked me if I was okay, told me everything would be all right, and gave me a hug, telling me to go back to sleep. She's only nine, but has the soul of a very old woman.

This morning, we talked about that, and I explained that I was having a bad dream about work and money, and that I had read somewhere that people dream so they can get stuff out of their head and not go crazy in the waking hours.

She kind of laughed, and the explanation seemed to satisfy her. Then we took a run up to the store formerly known as White Hen to get the ever-important cough drops she and her sister insisted they needed.

I am utterly thankful for my girls. The three of us make quite a team, and as I keep allowing them into decisions about our lives, things just seem to be shoring up nicely for our "girl power."

During service at Parkview yesterday, PT talked about Jesus' birth as a baby, "born unto a woman," and how significant the Christmas story actually is.

He reiterated that it was so very important for Jesus to be born just like all of us, to live life as one of us, so that God could feel all the things we feel and truly understand the human experience. Therefore, PT said, Jesus felt pain and sorrow and stress and loss and was sometimes frightened and worried. He did not live a charmed life, but worked and got dirty and did just what we do every day.

Today, I was comforted by the thought that maybe even Jesus might have occasionally woken up crying from a bad dream, only to realize that someone loved Him enough to reassure him in that moment, that everything would be okay.