Greetings Everyone!
This year has flown by faster than any I have known! It doesn’t even register in my brain that 2009 will be here in just a few days. God has been so good through it all and has blessed me to meet so many wonderful people. I have also had the chance to spend more time with some friends and get to know them better. Thanks you all for lifting up my Mom in prayer as she is recovering from surgery. She is quickly getting back on her feet and preparing to hit the road again.
As most of you know, my uncle passed away this September and obviously, it has shaken the family. He was one of those ‘characters’ you hear about from the country; laid back, hilarious, and generous to a fault. He told me so many stories about when he was a kid and the differences between then and now.
It truly is a different world than what he grew up in. This being Christmas, I can’t help but imagine, fifty or sixty years ago, when the children of this family and thousands of others, would receive things under the Christmas tree that most children today would throw back. When money was scarce, you’d receive things you needed at Christmas, like clothes, shoes, or something like a sack of fruit.
Today, it has become a competition to see who can outspend the other, who can raise the bar higher and make the biggest impression. Thus the season is lost in the stress of high expectations and the rest of the year is often complicated by debt accumulated over the short holiday.
As most of us are blessed beyond the wildest dreams of people outside of the United States of America, I can’t help but imagine how God must feel. He prepared a gift and it was laid before mankind, sadly most declined. It was not a pleasant thing to look upon and man was content to remain as he was, lost in self and bound to curse of forever searching and never obtaining.
Still, the gift was laid in a manger and opened on Calvary and the blood that we did not think we wanted, but the blood that we needed was placed at the foot of the tree. Little did we know that such an act of brutality, of merciless inhumanity, would be the key to open the very gates of Heaven for us!
As we go through the pile of presents, wrapped so beautifully under our Christmas trees, let us never forget the gift that we didn’t think we wanted, that was at the foot of the first Christmas tree. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. Although we celebrate the birth of the Christ, he was born to die and so Christmas led to the cross, and the cross led to salvation for all! That is why we celebrate peace coming to earth and joy that can be obtained by everyone who ask.
Merry CHRISTmas and a blessed New Year!
This year has flown by faster than any I have known! It doesn’t even register in my brain that 2009 will be here in just a few days. God has been so good through it all and has blessed me to meet so many wonderful people. I have also had the chance to spend more time with some friends and get to know them better. Thanks you all for lifting up my Mom in prayer as she is recovering from surgery. She is quickly getting back on her feet and preparing to hit the road again.
As most of you know, my uncle passed away this September and obviously, it has shaken the family. He was one of those ‘characters’ you hear about from the country; laid back, hilarious, and generous to a fault. He told me so many stories about when he was a kid and the differences between then and now.
It truly is a different world than what he grew up in. This being Christmas, I can’t help but imagine, fifty or sixty years ago, when the children of this family and thousands of others, would receive things under the Christmas tree that most children today would throw back. When money was scarce, you’d receive things you needed at Christmas, like clothes, shoes, or something like a sack of fruit.
Today, it has become a competition to see who can outspend the other, who can raise the bar higher and make the biggest impression. Thus the season is lost in the stress of high expectations and the rest of the year is often complicated by debt accumulated over the short holiday.
As most of us are blessed beyond the wildest dreams of people outside of the United States of America, I can’t help but imagine how God must feel. He prepared a gift and it was laid before mankind, sadly most declined. It was not a pleasant thing to look upon and man was content to remain as he was, lost in self and bound to curse of forever searching and never obtaining.
Still, the gift was laid in a manger and opened on Calvary and the blood that we did not think we wanted, but the blood that we needed was placed at the foot of the tree. Little did we know that such an act of brutality, of merciless inhumanity, would be the key to open the very gates of Heaven for us!
As we go through the pile of presents, wrapped so beautifully under our Christmas trees, let us never forget the gift that we didn’t think we wanted, that was at the foot of the first Christmas tree. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. Although we celebrate the birth of the Christ, he was born to die and so Christmas led to the cross, and the cross led to salvation for all! That is why we celebrate peace coming to earth and joy that can be obtained by everyone who ask.
Merry CHRISTmas and a blessed New Year!