Walked into my favourite Christian bookstore last week and I saw what I thought was a new product - cards for a difficult Christmas. I thought "Ahaa.. somebody finally realized that Christmas is not the happy time of year it is touted to be." When I commended the cashier for selling these, she said to me: "We have always had these cards for sale. They do get sold pretty quick though."
Interesting - I had never noticed them before even though this is a store I have visited every year for my Christmas cards.
I turned on the radio a couple of weeks ago, and I tuned in to what used to my favorite Christmas station streaming from Buffalo. 102.5 FM
I listened to song after song and my mind just could not grasp the "joy" that I had always felt at Christmas.
I felt like little Cindy Lou Who as she sang in the movie The Grinch who stole Christmas:
Change - of course much has changed. Like Cindy I am not the same one for sure. Like her world, my world has changed too.
Cindy Lou Who ends her song by saying:
It had made a deep impression on me. .
Yes it is good to remember and celebrate but if we do not see the shadow of the cross that lay across the crib, then we have lost the reason for the season. The reason for the season is not just a babe in a manger born of a virgin but more than that the Son of God who came to earth to die for us. It is in His substitutionary death and resurrection that we glory. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16
Loved One is Christmas hard for you? The world is blaring a different tune - you are told to have a holly jolly Christmas because it is the best time of the year. And every nerve inside of you is screaming - no it is not. Your family is shattered, your health is bad, you have lost a loved one, your child is rebellious, you thought you would find the partner of your dreams and it has not happened, your marriage is rocky... You feel alone even inside the church, You get left out of every party - you have nowhere to go on Christmas day...you are plain exhausted and tired.
Dear Reader if this is you, remember you are not alone. 2000 years ago there was much pain on that first Christmas day. I wonder how Mary felt. She had been told by the angel Gabriel that she was"the favored One" that the Lord is with her."that she had "found favor with God" and she was going to give birth to the Son of the Most High. This would be accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit and that power of the Most High will overshadow her. Luke 1.
And here she was...no room at the inn...giving birth in a stable. I wonder what her thoughts were? Mary's pain and loneliness did not stop. The shadow of the Cross on the manger did not leave her, until Jesus rose again.
This year, I encourage you Loved One to look beyond Christmas to Christ Himself.
Seek Him with all your heart and mind and in the midst of your pain and loneliness you will find the perfect love that came down that first Christmas morn.
Interesting - I had never noticed them before even though this is a store I have visited every year for my Christmas cards.
I turned on the radio a couple of weeks ago, and I tuned in to what used to my favorite Christmas station streaming from Buffalo. 102.5 FM
I listened to song after song and my mind just could not grasp the "joy" that I had always felt at Christmas.
I felt like little Cindy Lou Who as she sang in the movie The Grinch who stole Christmas:
Where are you Christmas
Why can't I find you
Why have you gone away
Where is the laughter
You used to bring me
Why can't I hear music play
My world is changing
I'm rearranging
Does that mean Christmas changes too
What changed?
Where are you Christmas
Do you remember
The one you used to know
I'm not the same one
See what the time's done
Is that why you have let me go
Cindy Lou Who ends her song by saying:
If there is love in your heart and your mind
You will feel like Christmas all the time
However unlike her I cannot "find" or "feel" Christmas inside of me.
I have to go outside of me...
I have to go to the beginning of time. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1 "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." John 1:14
The birth and coming of Christ was foretold in many ways by many prophets but there was never any mention of snowy winter nights, Santa Claus, sleigh bells, Christmas trees, turkey dinner or even family gatherings.
Wait a minute...There was a family of sorts- Joseph and his pregnant fiance Mary travelling to a nondescript little town to get themselves registered. She was going to give birth and he did not have enough influence to even get her a room at the inn. "And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn." Luke 2:7
How did we come so far from this first Christmas morning to what we have made it today?
When I first came to know Jesus as my personal Saviour I had heard a sermon by Pastor Nelson Annan titled "The Shadow of the Cross over the manger."
The birth and coming of Christ was foretold in many ways by many prophets but there was never any mention of snowy winter nights, Santa Claus, sleigh bells, Christmas trees, turkey dinner or even family gatherings.
Wait a minute...There was a family of sorts- Joseph and his pregnant fiance Mary travelling to a nondescript little town to get themselves registered. She was going to give birth and he did not have enough influence to even get her a room at the inn. "And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn." Luke 2:7
How did we come so far from this first Christmas morning to what we have made it today?
When I first came to know Jesus as my personal Saviour I had heard a sermon by Pastor Nelson Annan titled "The Shadow of the Cross over the manger."
Yes it is good to remember and celebrate but if we do not see the shadow of the cross that lay across the crib, then we have lost the reason for the season. The reason for the season is not just a babe in a manger born of a virgin but more than that the Son of God who came to earth to die for us. It is in His substitutionary death and resurrection that we glory. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16
Loved One is Christmas hard for you? The world is blaring a different tune - you are told to have a holly jolly Christmas because it is the best time of the year. And every nerve inside of you is screaming - no it is not. Your family is shattered, your health is bad, you have lost a loved one, your child is rebellious, you thought you would find the partner of your dreams and it has not happened, your marriage is rocky... You feel alone even inside the church, You get left out of every party - you have nowhere to go on Christmas day...you are plain exhausted and tired.
Dear Reader if this is you, remember you are not alone. 2000 years ago there was much pain on that first Christmas day. I wonder how Mary felt. She had been told by the angel Gabriel that she was"the favored One" that the Lord is with her."that she had "found favor with God" and she was going to give birth to the Son of the Most High. This would be accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit and that power of the Most High will overshadow her. Luke 1.
And here she was...no room at the inn...giving birth in a stable. I wonder what her thoughts were? Mary's pain and loneliness did not stop. The shadow of the Cross on the manger did not leave her, until Jesus rose again.
This year, I encourage you Loved One to look beyond Christmas to Christ Himself.
Seek Him with all your heart and mind and in the midst of your pain and loneliness you will find the perfect love that came down that first Christmas morn.
Thank You, Joslyn. Well said and a good reminder of the true meaning of Christmas and it's significance.
ReplyDeleteThank you Nandini - for reading my blog and encouraging me. The Lord has been gracious to us in this furnace of suffering. It has been a difficult year but I can say like the Apostle Paul - His grace is sufficient. Much love to your family
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