Christmas – Hope Anyway

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things

Sat, 27 Nov 2021 13:47:00 GMT

Fresh off a Thanksgiving where we could gather once again, and on the front edge of what looks to be another busy Christmas season, I’m taking time to pause and reflect on what I most value most. I find myself increasingly grateful for my many blessings – not just possessions but blessings of all kinds.

My husband, boys, and I were coming home late from a holiday activity the night before Thanksgiving. The boys were both asleep in the back and we were listening to Christmas music. The song, “My Favorite Things,” began to play. We talked about why it gets played at Christmas time. It’s not about Christmas. We have theories, but only theories. My personal “favorite” is that it’s a wonderful time of year to think about your real favorite things, which may or may include raindrops on roses or whiskers on kittens.

I spent the rest of the ride home thinking about my favorite things – the things that make me feel better when I’m feeling sad. I’m going to share a few of them here in the hopes that they encourage you to spend some quality time thinking about your own favorite things.

Many of my favorite things stem from childhood memories. I have wonderful memories of family gatherings and my small town’s Christmas parade. I remember going with my family and that tiny parade feeling so much bigger and more exciting than it would be to an adult or even to my children, who are just used to a more significant production. It was special when you knew everyone in the parade, all the kids in the high school band, and everyone lining the sidewalks under streetlights adorned with garland and giant plastic candles to watch and wait for Santa to pass. It felt like joy shared with almost everyone I knew all at once. Joy shared is high on my favorites list.

Decorating the Christmas tree with special ornaments has always been a favorite thing – especially when I was little, and my parents had a shiny silver aluminum tree straight out of the 1960s. I don’t have a beautifully decorated, fancy tree at my house. I have a tree full of hodge-podge ornaments that came from special people. Some friends of my parents bought me an angel ornament in Switzerland for my very first Christmas. It started a collection of Christmas angels that continues to grow today. I have special ones that were made or purchased for me by important people throughout my life. When I hang those ornaments each year, I feel peace in knowing that I was loved and thought of by many people through the years. That village of people that surround us plays a big part in who we are and how we feel.

One of my favorite things about Christmas is and has always been special church services. The seasonal decorations always add an element of extra special to any sanctuary. Christmas plays, choir performances, and singing Christmas songs help make the story of Jesus’ birth more poignant. No matter how often I’ve read the second chapter of Luke and heard messages about the humble birth of our savior, my faith is built more with each passing time. I am in awe every single time I slow down enough to dwell on the significance of God becoming man.

Another favorite thing is spending time with my people, especially my husband and kids. When you’re a child you don’t realize how much time, effort, and money your parents put into Christmas. I suppose that’s for the best. Many happy memories revolve around being taken to Christmas bazaars, light displays and theatrical productions. Others include making cookies and candy and activities that make a childhood special. I enjoy doing those things with my kids just as much as I did with my parents and sister. It gives me hope that my children will grow up to place more value on the meaning of Christmas and time with people they love than gifts under a tree. I hope some of them become their favorite things.

My goal is to be more intentional during this time of advent, this period of quiet preparation. I want to spend equal parts of my time remembering and looking forward in anticipation. I want to spend more time focused on the hope, faith, joy, and peace we have because of Christ, and less time worried about, well, everything else that comes with the holidays. I want to slow down and really appreciate each day for what it is – a gracious gift from God.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

Friends, I pray we all slow down enough this Christmas season to appreciate our gift of salvation. If you have not accepted that gift, there is no better time. Of all the people, experiences, and noteworthy moments of my life, it is by far my favorite thing.

Good Tidings Of Great Joy Still Accurate This Christmas

Mon, 21 Dec 2020 20:38:00 GMT

I had something entirely different on my mind to write for today – something that God has been sharing with me in the last few days. However, I was sitting in church Sunday in the glow of Christmas lights and advent candles when God dropped something else on my heart for this Christmas week.

I found myself sitting there as special music played thinking about people I miss. Oh, there’s the obvious. I miss my parents and other friends and family that have passed away. It’s an acute feeling of loss on many days during the holiday season, especially at Christmas.

I began reflecting on people that used to attend church with me that no longer do for whatever reason. I thought about friends and people I grew up and went to school with. What a mark those people can leave on your life, especially because you know them during your formative years.

I thought about former coworkers who suffered with me through many dreadful meetings, angry phone calls, and leadership changes. They also practically lived some of my highest highs and lowest lows right along with me. And I with them. It’s hard not to still be close to people that you know so much about. When you know how they take their coffee, what their childbirth experiences were, and just what pushes their buttons it’s hard to not still be close to them.

Then there are people who are with you in certain phases of life but go their separate ways when it’s over. Specifically, college friends, former neighbors, daycare staff that felt more like family and people that are close during a sports season or some similar activity all come to mind.

Finally, I think about friends that just go different directions. Friends that have small children at different times than you and lifestyles that simply no longer match up. Priorities change. Sometimes life just takes us in different directions. Other times we put too many expectations on friends and they just can’t live up to them. So we drift apart.

I miss all of these people in my life. That is one perk of social media, the ability to still have some connection with many of these people. However, a bird’s eye view of someone’s life is never going to take the place of real and regular connection. That has felt so significant this year. Connecting with people. Right now, I’m certainly missing the real time normally spent with family and friends that I don’t get to see this Christmas.

As those thoughts, and so many of those faces, crossed my mind with rapid speed, that’s when it happened. God pointed me to the Christmas story and the one person that we never have to miss. Jesus. I was overwhelmed in that moment thinking about the gift that He was, is and will continue to be. We can argue semantics of the story often presented to us in songs, church plays and Nativity sets, but we can’t argue His birth and the good news it meant for all of humanity.

“Then the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord .” (Luke 2:10-11, NKJV)

Friends, unlike all the other people in our lives that don’t live up to our expectations, pass through like ships in the night, pass on to eternity, or just drift away, Jesus Christ remains with us. He will not leave us. He will not let us down. He will not drift away because the circumstances of our life changed. He loves you, and He will not stop.

Jesus is enough. Let me say it again, Jesus is enough. He is the only person that will never leave us or forsake us. He is the only one who can fully and permanently fill the void in our hearts. We were made to need Him. No one else – not spouses, not children, not parents, not friends – can fill what only He can. What a gift.

This Christmas when you see a Nativity scene, read the events of Christ’s birth in the book of Luke, or even listen to Linus recite it in “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” I want you to take to heart those good tidings of great joy. The Savior, who is Christ the Lord, was born for you. Once you ask Him into your heart, He is always with you. He is always enough.

Seeking The Light Of The World This Christmas

Mon, 14 Dec 2020 21:28:00 GMT

I was walking in a thick fog one morning last week. I could only see a few yards in front of me for nearly the first two miles. I noticed a couple cars coming toward me well in advance because I saw their lights. I couldn’t see the vehicles themselves until they got close. I could see their lights. One even had a headlight out. Less light but I still saw it. I couldn’t help but think that the darker it is, the better we can see the light.

Light has been on my heart ever since.

I’ve been hearing a lot about the Bethlehem Star or Christmas Star that we’re supposed to be able to see for the first time in 800 years. I guess it’s technically not a star in this case, but on December 21, 2020 it seems that Jupiter and Saturn will align so that they appear as one bright star from our earthly perspective. It’s been 800 years! What a time for that to happen again. There is never a bad time to lean in and look closer at a light that points to Jesus.

I sat quietly in my living room one night over the weekend and looked at the Christmas tree and an angel lantern sitting nearby. The kids were in bed, my husband was asleep on the couch, all the other lights were off except for the tree lights and the lantern. What a peaceful time that was. What kept going through my head as I sat there was the power of the light. I could almost tangibly feel God’s peace settle over me as I gazed at that lantern in the dark.

The car lights, the Star of Bethlehem, the peace of those Christmas lights – they all stand out and offer hope in the darkness. It’s not hard to get caught up in the darkness these days, at least not for me. But that’s when light is at its brightest. When the fog is thickest. On the day when night comes the earliest and stays the longest. When everything else is dark.

Light is the first thing God created after the heavens and the earth. It’s that important. It’s essential to life. There are lots of meanings and uses of the word “light.” One that strikes me the most is arguably the most basic. It’s simply something that makes vision possible.

The Gospel of John offers some explanation. Chapter 1:4-5 (NKJV) says, “ In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. ” Later in versus 9, “ That was the true Light which gives light to every man who comes into the world .” This is referring to Jesus. Jesus is the light.

In John 8:12, after Jesus saves and forgives the woman caught in adultery (Talk about darkness, she was guilty and facing death.) he explains it himself.

“Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life .”

I know from first-hand experience that Christmas can come with its own share of darkness. When you’ve lost loved ones, Christmas is never quite the same. The losses cast a very real shadow on what is repeatedly billed as the most wonderful time of year. Broken-heartedness, sickness, anger, loneliness, fear, uncertainty, exhaustion all throw their own shadows. These can leave us feeling more and more in the dark. More lost. More hopeless. More resigned to despair. Unless we look for the light.

Jesus is the light that eclipses the darkness. Chase the light. Walk in the light and pass it on. Matthew 5:16 tells us to let our light shine before others. Oh, how bright our light can be to others who are lost in the shadows. I have been lifted by the light of others many times. Even if you feel dimmed from a missing headlight, you can still shine enough to push back some darkness. When your light is reflecting the creator and source of light, darkness is overtaken.

Psalm 18:28 says, “ For You will light my lamp; The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness .”

Friends, the “star” might be two planets aligned just the right way. They may not be literally guiding us to a stable in Bethlehem, but they are still pointing me to Jesus. The light of the world. No matter how foggy the morning, how short the day, how dark the season, or heavy the year, the light of Jesus is always shining.

Will you focus on the light this Christmas? On the gift of Jesus? He chases the darkness away and makes life possible. May we never lose sight of the light.

Be Ready To Wrestle For Your Blessing

Mon, 07 Dec 2020 22:46:00 GMT

You don’t need me to tell you what strange times we are living in or how hard it is to carve out tiny bits of normal during a global pandemic. It’s been close to a universal struggle for most of us this year. I had hoped that by the Christmas season we would be able to resume some of our regular festive activities. Alas, here we are still hunkered down and trying to make the most of the hand we’ve been dealt.

My husband and I have been looking for ways to create special family holiday activities with our kids but in a safe way. One of those was getting a take-home box of Christmas ornaments from a local paint-your-own-pottery place. We painted them together at home and then dropped the box back at the studio for them to glaze and fire. Once the finished versions were back home, I stood there looking at them and thinking about how much effort it takes not just to make those ornaments look decent but to make something positive out of this difficult year.

As I stared at those ornaments my mind pinballed to traditional Christmas events that we won’t get to do this year. I thought about how it seems like we are having to work harder to salvage anything good out of this year. I don’t want to look back and put an asterisk on this Christmas. Or do I?

It’s not because I want to remember the struggle. I want to remember the blessing.

In Genesis 32 versus 22-32 we read the story of Jacob wrestling God. Jacob is traveling away from his father-in-law, which wasn’t a great situation, and toward home and his brother who had previously wanted to kill him. Kind of between a rock and hard place. In the middle of the night, he finds himself wrestling God in the form of a man.

Jacob says, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” The man touched his hip socket, put it out of joint, and gave him a limp. Jacob fought for his blessing and came away changed. God said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” God blessed him on the spot. Jacob called the place Peniel: “For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” (Verse 30, NKJV).

Jacob acknowledged God and his blessing in that moment. He left physically and spiritually altered. But he saw his blessing.

Friends, sometimes in the middle of struggles, we must wrestle God for our blessing. We can’t wrestle from a distance. We’ve got to get close, and we can’t let go. Jacob refused to quit. Even with a hip out of socket he wouldn’t give up. He didn’t say let’s rest and finish after we eat or regain some strength. Or let me attend to my injury and then we’ll finish. He said, “I won’t let go unless you bless me.”

What really strikes me about this is that God changed Jacob’sname because he struggled with God and men and “overcame.” Some translations say “prevailed.” Let’s be real. It’s not like God could lose an actual wrestling match to a human. That isn’t what this is about. That’s not the type of overcoming we’re talking about.

No matter what was behind him or ahead of him, the struggle, the injury, the pain, or what happened to him during the fight, he wasn’t going to let go of God. Friends, when we make that decision in our own minds that’s when God reveals the blessing.

Painting pottery at home instead of going to see a live version of “The Nutcracker” is not exactly what comes to mind when we think about wrestling with God. But refusing to let go of God during a struggle is absolutely what leads to a blessing. A block of my finite amount of time spent celebrating Christmas with my most special people, in whatever way it happens, is a blessing worth remembering.

Most of us will not come out of this year the same way we went in. I can tell you with absolute certainty that I don’t want to go back. And we wouldn’t be human if we didn’t have some apprehension about what’s waiting for us up ahead. However, that doesn’t mean that we can’t be blessed. That we aren’t blessed. Just be prepared to come out with a limp.

Can you make a commitment to stay in the fight with God and not let go? If you can, you’ll find your blessing.