Ladera WyldLife: Christmas Club

Christmas Club at the Wrights'!

Last night was Ladera Ranch WyldLife's first annual Christmas Club! It was such a great night! We had over 50 kids come ready to have a good time. There was hot coco, handmade by the talented Steve Wright! There were Christmas cookies and candy canes as far as the eye could see, and enough good cheer for the whole block!

Grant and Noah doing work on spike-ball!

The girls got into slam disc.

We had a couple new games set up as kids started showing up. Spike-ball and slam disc. Apparently I am behind the times on these games, and the kids taught some of us leaders a few new moves. It was a lot of fun hanging out before all the crazy games got going.

Mr. Christmas Tree, Jake Cruzen.

One of the games was a Christmas tree decorating contest... the only twist was that guys were the trees. Each grade competed against each other decorating one of the guys as a Christmas tree. They got pretty creative, and there were some really good looking "trees" but in the end Josh Dunphy was chosen by our team of expert judges as the winner of the Mr. Christmas Tree Pageant. 

Mackenzie really likes Christmas cookies!

Marlee looking a bit like the Grinch

The girls got to have a pageant of their own as well! They got to be human sugar cookies.  We had teams of three decorate each brave volunteer! There were some very interesting results, and I think the girls might be smelling and tasting vanilla frosting for a few days.

Alexa

Kayla's team went for a more abstract approach.

Matt Wright taught us how to make his favorite Christmas Spaghetti!

The grand finale was a cooking class/eating contest hosted by our very own Matt Wright. He instructed us all on how to make his favorite Christmas Spaghetti! The sauce was the secret, a potent mixture of syrup, chocolate sauce, M&M's, marshmallows, and gummy bears. I am not sure how any of them were able to eat any of it, but Shane stepped up and almost ate his whole tray!

Syrup, chocolate sauce, M&M's, marshmallows, and gummy bears... 

At the end of the night I got to share about what all the messy games have to do with Christmas. We enjoy getting messy at WyldLife. Middle school is a messy time in life, and letting kids have fun getting messy is something we enjoy.

Its hard to go through life without getting messy... because no matter how clean you try to stay, life is messy. Its just a part of being human. 

I shared a story about a time when my oldest daughter was a few months old. While changing a "blow out" diaper, she had another "movement" and I ended up getting some of the mess on me. I quickly realized that wipes were not going to do the job and started getting the bath ready. As I was holding her, with baby poop on my arms, I felt a warm sensation begin to flow down from where I was holding Hazel. I quickly realized that I was totally covered in my daughter's mess... and I started to laugh. Honestly, its one of the best memories I have from when she was little. Don't get me wrong, I never thought I would react that way, but, as most of you who have kids can attest to, when it is your own kid, its just different. It brought me closer to Hazel, and it made me realize more about the depth of my love for her.

Its the same with God.

Sometimes it can be easy to think that God doesn't want to get involved in our mess, or be close to us when we are messy. But that is what we celebrate on Christmas Day. God came to earth as a baby, a messy baby, and entered into our messy human experience. 

Its hard to think that the God of the universe would want to get involved in our mess, or would be willing to hold us even when we are covered in filth... but he does. In the beginning of the New Testament book of John, John writes, "The Word (Jesus) became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." Jesus, God, entered into our mess. He became a human and moved into the neighborhood. He knows what it is like.

And, like with my experience with my daughter Hazel, when God enters into our mess with us, it deepens our relationship. As I held my daughter, my love for her grew. God loves us perfectly right now, so its not that his love grows as we let him come near when we are messy, but we learn more about how much he does actually love us. We realize that there is nothing we can do to make him drop us, there is nothing we can do to make him hesitate in coming near.

Paul writes in Romans 5:8 that "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."While we were at our messiest, God drew near. This is why I get so excited about Christmas. God came near! God comes near... always! He is not afraid of my mess, and as I let him come near, he begins to clean me up, from the inside out.

So, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas season. I hope that as the pace of life gets crazier, and as things begin to get hectic and messy, that you would remember how deeply God loves you, and how, at Christmas, we get to celebrate that God became a baby, a messy baby, and isn't afraid to come near when we are at our worst.

Best part of the night, sharing about Jesus jumping into our mess with us!