Hi! Karen Salas here...From my seat, at my desk and in the Body, I have the rare privilege of seeing you lovely people live your lives with HIM. I am in awe of you!     This month is a little different. In honor of the season...I invite Jesus to the cover of our newsletter...

I (Karen) have been sad the first week of this Christmas season. Really sad. The weight of the world, the pain of it, feels like it is squeezing my soul and darkening the sky.

I don't know why this particular year...

maybe it is the recent bombings...

Paris and San Bernardino....

refugee women and children living in container boxes in the Middle East...

human trafficking...

or even small personal daily losses more close to home.

Maybe it is just the stupid drought or the rising price of groceries.

I think it is all of it.

We are all caught in it, the death of the world constantly in our living rooms, on our phones, in our lives. The world...dark and heavy.

Bill and I recently went to see the last Hunger Games movie. (This is neither an endorsement nor a critique of the movie). I enjoyed the all the books, the other movies. This one moved me to utter panic. The ending, after the children die, when the new president takes her office to beating of drums in a scene of gray... I almost had to run out of the theater.