"Last Minute" Christmas - Hope Wreath

I've seen a lot of posts on some of my favorite crafty blogs about last minute Christmas decor. And each time I see them, I think, "is it really last minute? Christmas isn't for another...." And then I realize, Christmas is 2 weeks away. It seems like each year I am less and less prepared for Christmas. But, I am not going to freak out about it.

I really have been thinking about Christmas a lot these last few weeks, just not the normal hustle and bustle type of stuff. I've been thinking about why we even have Christmas. Why do we celebrate and worry so much about getting everything right so we can really get in to the "spirit" of the holiday?

Being a Christian, I usually do think about why we celebrate Christmas, but this year it has been especially at the forefront of my mind. I think it all started when I heard "Joy to the World" on the radio. I starting thinking about why we would say "joy to the world the Lord has come". Many people view Jesus as a "good teacher". If the Lord's coming was just to teach us about love and being kind then He didn't really need to come. He could have just had more prophets write more books telling us how to love one another. So, we do not have joy because a "good teacher" came to earth.

So why the joy? Why would "heaven and nature sing" about His birth? Why would we celebrate His birth any more than the birth of another great leader or teacher? We don't spend all this effort preparing for Martin Luther King Jr's birthday, we don't celebrate our great presidents' birthdays with more than a day off for government employees. So, why all this celebration around the birth of Jesus? Why should our hearts be full of joy at Christmas time?

Our hearts should be joyful because we are sinners, enemies of God in our hearts deserving of death, but God sent us a Savior! He made a way for us to be reconciled to Him and that is why we sing of joy. We were destined for hell but God sent Jesus to be our sin bearer. Jesus was born, lived a sinless life, died and suffered the wrath of God on our behalf, and rose in victory over death. We sing of joy because we can now have joy if we trust in Christ for our salvation. We have hope because He rose to prove that His death on the cross conquered death for those who would trust completely in Him for salvation. It is a joy to know that nothing I do can qualify or disqualify me for heaven. Salvation is full in Christ. We can not add to or take away from what He has done. Joy to the world, indeed.

So, since we understand this, we have great hope. And that is why I wanted this wreath to be on my front door. It is my "last minute" Christmas decor because I am more excited than ever about the hope we have in Christ that we focus on at Christmas time.

If you want to make your own, I don't have a tutorial, but here's how I did it...

I had an old frame that I got from my grandma and I painted it white. I suggest spray paint, but I couldn't find mine so I used acrylic paint. Let it dry completely (don't make the same mistake I did).

I got the ornament that says "hope" at Walmart for $1 and hot glued the string to the backside of the frame, making sure it was centered in the frame.

To be sure the ornament hung correctly after I put the ribbon on, I had to bring two strips of ribbon through the frame so that there could be ribbon on both sides of the ornament and the ornament could hang freely between them (hope that makes sense).

I really like this look and plan to make more and play around different frames and colors and ribbons and things. Lots of fun!