Oh come, oh come Emmanuel. And ransom captive Israel. That mourns in lonely exile here. Until the Son of God appear, Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel! Shall come to thee, O Israel.
Can you envision all people in awe with excitement, that the Son of God has arrived? They have waited and waited. In fact, it took around 700 years for Isaiah’s prophecy of Christ to be fulfilled after he foretold of Immanuel’s birth. This time of the year is so wonderful. The lights. The laughter. Family time.
This is Alissa again, Nicole’s sister. Every other year my family gets together to celebrate Christmas in Minnesota. It is pretty special. My mother works so hard for 2 years, to prepare for our “WinterKamp.” She has a new theme each year, ornaments for the theme, handmade items for everyone (relating to the theme), and events. Nicole has always loved coming up to Minnesota for Christmas. She loves the snow; and loves having her kids experience it, cousin time, and seeing where she grew up. She would always spend weeks preparing–getting gloves, hats, coats, and making sure she had everything to embrace the North Pole. Ha!
2020 would have been our next annual WinterKamp. We have chosen to postpone most of the event, given Nicole’s condition and the situation we are facing. It saddens me because “WinterKamp” has had so many great memories; and my mother began it when Nicole started having children. Nicole has always given ornaments to each of my kids every year, when we have celebrated Christmas together.
This year I decided to make ornaments for our family and friends in the shape of sunglasses to honor her. She is an inspiration to me and so many others. I will love taking out this ornament each year and remembering her. Her Faith. Her Love. Her Leadership. Her courage. Her strength. It brought many tears this past week as I set up my tree and saw ornaments back from 2005.
Thanks to Jeff Julian at Julian.Works for helping with the ornament cutouts.
Nicole received the best gift of all and her mission was to share it with everyone. We can all have it. It’s free. We just need to accept it, acknowledge it and receive it.
For it says in Romans 3:10 ” There is no one righteous, not even one.” All people are born with sin and we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We cannot get right with God, apart from the gift of righteousness. It says in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus our Lord.” Paul compares two types of lives here. We can have eternal separation from God. A life where we are slaves to sin and have eternal death. No matter how good we think we may be or how hard we work, it will never be good enough as eternal life isn’t earned through our good works.
However, there is another way Paul says we can become servants to righteousness by trusting Christ. He describes eternal life as a free gift in Christ Jesus. When we trust in Christ, God gives us the credit for Christ’s perfect, sinless life; and accepts Christ’s death as payment for our sin. He died for you. He died for me. He suffered on a cross for us. We can have eternal life with Him, sharing in His glory given to us as a gift. What life is it you want? I know if you are reading this, you know Nicole’s faith. Nicole would want you to accept this free gift as she has been praying for each one of you. She will be waiting there for you and would love to see you again. We must ask for forgiveness and understand we are a sinner before we can accept this gift.
If you’ve never trusted in Jesus, understand your need for a savior and are ready to move forward to accept this gift, Jesus is it! Paul says in Romans 9:10 ” If you declare with you mouth, “Jesus is Lord”, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” God knows our heart. God hears every word spoken. It never has to be perfect. For it says in Romans 8:13 “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Here is a simple prayer for you to say if you want to accept this gift that God has given us through His son Jesus Christ: “Heavenly Father, I know that I am a sinner and I deserve Hell and eternity away from you. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for me and I ask for your forgiveness from my sins. Thank you for giving me the gift of eternal life. I want to turn and live a new life for you. I receive Jesus into my heart as my personal Savior. Please save me. In Jesus’ name, Amen”
If you said that prayer, I’d love to pray with you. I’d love to talk with you. Please click on this link.
Now we can be assured that through faith in Jesus Christ, we can enjoy peace with God, no longer separated from our holy God by sin. Romans 8:1 says, “Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” We can now rejoice in the result of our salvation. Before faith in Christ we were all destined for death. But now we can have eternity in Heaven. I am delighting in the fact Nicole will be seeing those pearly gates and golden streets soon. Our Father will be welcoming her with open arms. I selfishly want her here, but ultimately our home isn’t here. It never was meant to be here. God has given us this life for His purposes and his design. I am grateful for her and grateful my Father loves me so much He gave me Her. I didn’t deserve her. He Hand picked her out. For me. She is something, so special.
Nicole has had some remarkable things happening this past week. Her friend Paige Shepard came over to reorganize the food pantry. Wow! She did an amazing job. I need her to come over and do that for me too! So sweet to see people using the talents God has given us to serve others. I love that!
My cousin Tiffany and her family came to see Nicole. Nicole surprisingly was up most of the day and was able to see her. Oh, how I know Nicole enjoyed seeing Tiff and the kids. We had special memories together as kids with Tiff and her siblings. My family would go Nebraska every summer and spend a week there with her family and my grandparents. Those were special memories.
Nicole also had a great quaint Thanksgiving while I’ve loved spending time with my nieces lately. We have a standing appointment each week doing a Bible Study together and I get to talk with them. Abbey and Ashton’s prayer request was that they would get quality family time and time with their mom during Thanksgiving. God answered their prayer. The family was together, and it was intimate. I am thankful that they all were able to be there laugh and lean on one another.
Well, on Monday Nicole was moved to Hospice at home. I know it was a difficult decision for Scott to make. Bless his heart. No matter how much you can prepare yourself for the road that was destined, you can’t. The hospice service arrived Monday and it was quite an education for everyone. They were sweet, loving, and gave them confidence in how to help Nicole during this next short phase. I know Nicole has appreciated your support reading her blog, your encouragement, notes, and love. You have helped keep her fighting. Our Lord has been right by her side. Holding her hand. Leading her ultimate destination and to be united with our Creator.
Prayer Requests:
Comfort for Nicole. Pain Free. Sweet moments with her family.
Strength for Scott and the kids. For them to feel our heavenly father and for comfort.
Praises: God has given us so many people that have encouraged the family. We thank you. Each note, message, phone call and visit. We thank you and know God designed and was there for each interaction with Nicole. God has been so good and has given us so many years with Nicole. We are blessed.
***Nicole’s Friend, Nikki has set up a picture frame with rolling photos. Please e-mail pictures to: nicoleinman@ourskylight.com if you’d like to share some photos for the family to see in their home.