I am resurrecting this blog to send our Christmas Greetings!
Dear Friends and Family,
We pray this letter finds you well and resting in our Savior as we celebrate His birth! We feel very blessed this year as we remember all we have been given by the Lord! We are so thankful for salvation through His Son Jesus Christ, our wonderful families, provisions of a good job, a home, food, and clothing, good health, and TWO WONDERFUL KIDS! Yes! Two kids! Last year right after Christmas we found out we were expecting another blessing from the Lord! On September 3, 2008, Elisabeth Jane Groff (Ellie) joined our family! Here is a little update on each of us…
Jeremy, besides being a wonderful husband and father, continues to work as a middle school music and choral teacher at Central Dauphin School District. When he’s not teaching he enjoys playing with Asher, holding Ellie, doing projects around the house, and helping Erin with housework. Yeah, Jeremy doesn’t have much free time! But at least he will get to sing at the Christmas Eve service this year. He hopes to be able to sing more at church someday, but right now life is too busy with two young children. He does take time to spend with the Lord reading the Bible, and he is just finishing up reading through the Bible cover to cover.
Erin is blessed to spend her days with Asher and Ellie. They keep her very busy and it’s a challenge to get anything else done! She has found more than ever that she needs to depend on the Lord for strength, widsom, patience, and self control in this challenging task of parenthood – BUT she wouldn’t trade her job for the world!
Asher is a BUSY BUSY BUSY 21 month old boy, and VERY fun. He is very verbal. It is amazing how quickly he is learning new words – every day he picks up a few more. He loves to sing and anything to do with music. He is especially enjoying Baby Einstein videos lately. He is also busy learning his letters, their sounds, counting, and his colors. We’re hoping he also learns to use the potty soon – but I think we’d better wait until he learns to sit and stand still! He is also learning to pray, and to obey. In his prayers at night, he reminds us to ask Jesus to help him obey by saying, “Ah-her, obey.” Asher just LOVES his baby sister and takes every opportunity to hug and kiss her, or touch her head, saying softly, “gentle, gentle.” He is the most precious boy, and we love him very much!
Ellie is a sweet 3 ½ month old baby with Mommy’s eyes and Daddy’s cheeks! She loves when you talk to her and smile – she will usually smile back. She is a very good baby – a good eater and a good sleeper. She enjoys watching bright colors and different patterns, and kicking her feet! Her mobile in her crib really catches her eye as well. As for her feelings for her brother, I figure she knows she pretty well has him wrapped around her finger. Did you see that picture of the two of them? Asher, the adoring big brother, and Ellie, secure in his love and her place in the family. Yes, she is precious and well loved by all!
Seeing Sight and Sound’s show “In the Beginning” has given Jeremy and I new things to think about during this Christmas season. It helped us to realize the relationship God and man had in the garden of Eden before Adam and Eve sinned. They actually walked and talked together as you and I might do as friends. Perfect love flowed between them as Creator and created-being. It is hard for us to understand this because even the most precious and loving relationship of parent to child is tainted by our sin natures; a child is prone to sin which naturally causes frustration on the part of the parent. But this relationship was pure and perfect because no sin had yet entered to destroy it. God loved his creation and friend, while Adam and Eve, the created, loved God simply because He created them, and He is worthy. His greatness was plain for them to see, and they worshipped him constantly in word and deed.
Then sin entered the picture. God had told them that if they did not obey His word, they would die. Adam and Eve were tempted and deceived by Satan, thinking there was something God had not told them. They failed to trust the word of their Creator. And that one act destroyed their perfect friendship. Though their bodies did not immediately die, they did experience the true meaning of death: separation from God. They had to leave the perfect garden, and their Lord, trusting only in God’s promise that a Son of Eve would one day make things right and restore the friendship they once had with God.
God did send that perfect Son, though it was not in Adam or Eve’s lifetime, nor the lifetime of their sons or grandsons. It was generations later, and he was born of a young virgin girl named Mary. This Son was placed in her miraculously by God, in fulfillment of his promise to restore the friendship between God and man. The angel said, “You shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). And that is what he did. We celebrate His birth at Christmas, and yet he really was born to die. He died – taking the punishment for sin. He endured death: separation from His Father, and then conquered it by resurrecting to life, and returning to the Father in Heaven.
Sitting in that show, as I watched Adam and Eve being driven from the garden, they asked, “Lord, will we ever see you again?” At that moment I realized more than ever WHY Jesus needed to die. We needed him to restore the friendship. It is because I have admitted my sin to God and accepted Jesus’ death as punishment for my sin that I can have a friendship with God today. I am so glad for this as I daily realize my need for God more and more each day. We hope and pray that you also experience this restored friendship with God. If you are not God’s friend, you can be. The Bible says, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). It also says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins, and purify us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9). What better time than Christmas to be saved, or to remember to be thankful for our salvation and relationship with God.
With Love,
Jeremy, Erin, Asher, and Elisabeth Groff
We pray this letter finds you well and resting in our Savior as we celebrate His birth! We feel very blessed this year as we remember all we have been given by the Lord! We are so thankful for salvation through His Son Jesus Christ, our wonderful families, provisions of a good job, a home, food, and clothing, good health, and TWO WONDERFUL KIDS! Yes! Two kids! Last year right after Christmas we found out we were expecting another blessing from the Lord! On September 3, 2008, Elisabeth Jane Groff (Ellie) joined our family! Here is a little update on each of us…
Jeremy, besides being a wonderful husband and father, continues to work as a middle school music and choral teacher at Central Dauphin School District. When he’s not teaching he enjoys playing with Asher, holding Ellie, doing projects around the house, and helping Erin with housework. Yeah, Jeremy doesn’t have much free time! But at least he will get to sing at the Christmas Eve service this year. He hopes to be able to sing more at church someday, but right now life is too busy with two young children. He does take time to spend with the Lord reading the Bible, and he is just finishing up reading through the Bible cover to cover.
Erin is blessed to spend her days with Asher and Ellie. They keep her very busy and it’s a challenge to get anything else done! She has found more than ever that she needs to depend on the Lord for strength, widsom, patience, and self control in this challenging task of parenthood – BUT she wouldn’t trade her job for the world!
Asher is a BUSY BUSY BUSY 21 month old boy, and VERY fun. He is very verbal. It is amazing how quickly he is learning new words – every day he picks up a few more. He loves to sing and anything to do with music. He is especially enjoying Baby Einstein videos lately. He is also busy learning his letters, their sounds, counting, and his colors. We’re hoping he also learns to use the potty soon – but I think we’d better wait until he learns to sit and stand still! He is also learning to pray, and to obey. In his prayers at night, he reminds us to ask Jesus to help him obey by saying, “Ah-her, obey.” Asher just LOVES his baby sister and takes every opportunity to hug and kiss her, or touch her head, saying softly, “gentle, gentle.” He is the most precious boy, and we love him very much!
Ellie is a sweet 3 ½ month old baby with Mommy’s eyes and Daddy’s cheeks! She loves when you talk to her and smile – she will usually smile back. She is a very good baby – a good eater and a good sleeper. She enjoys watching bright colors and different patterns, and kicking her feet! Her mobile in her crib really catches her eye as well. As for her feelings for her brother, I figure she knows she pretty well has him wrapped around her finger. Did you see that picture of the two of them? Asher, the adoring big brother, and Ellie, secure in his love and her place in the family. Yes, she is precious and well loved by all!
Seeing Sight and Sound’s show “In the Beginning” has given Jeremy and I new things to think about during this Christmas season. It helped us to realize the relationship God and man had in the garden of Eden before Adam and Eve sinned. They actually walked and talked together as you and I might do as friends. Perfect love flowed between them as Creator and created-being. It is hard for us to understand this because even the most precious and loving relationship of parent to child is tainted by our sin natures; a child is prone to sin which naturally causes frustration on the part of the parent. But this relationship was pure and perfect because no sin had yet entered to destroy it. God loved his creation and friend, while Adam and Eve, the created, loved God simply because He created them, and He is worthy. His greatness was plain for them to see, and they worshipped him constantly in word and deed.
Then sin entered the picture. God had told them that if they did not obey His word, they would die. Adam and Eve were tempted and deceived by Satan, thinking there was something God had not told them. They failed to trust the word of their Creator. And that one act destroyed their perfect friendship. Though their bodies did not immediately die, they did experience the true meaning of death: separation from God. They had to leave the perfect garden, and their Lord, trusting only in God’s promise that a Son of Eve would one day make things right and restore the friendship they once had with God.
God did send that perfect Son, though it was not in Adam or Eve’s lifetime, nor the lifetime of their sons or grandsons. It was generations later, and he was born of a young virgin girl named Mary. This Son was placed in her miraculously by God, in fulfillment of his promise to restore the friendship between God and man. The angel said, “You shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). And that is what he did. We celebrate His birth at Christmas, and yet he really was born to die. He died – taking the punishment for sin. He endured death: separation from His Father, and then conquered it by resurrecting to life, and returning to the Father in Heaven.
Sitting in that show, as I watched Adam and Eve being driven from the garden, they asked, “Lord, will we ever see you again?” At that moment I realized more than ever WHY Jesus needed to die. We needed him to restore the friendship. It is because I have admitted my sin to God and accepted Jesus’ death as punishment for my sin that I can have a friendship with God today. I am so glad for this as I daily realize my need for God more and more each day. We hope and pray that you also experience this restored friendship with God. If you are not God’s friend, you can be. The Bible says, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). It also says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins, and purify us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9). What better time than Christmas to be saved, or to remember to be thankful for our salvation and relationship with God.
With Love,
Jeremy, Erin, Asher, and Elisabeth Groff
