So many days I find myself saying “this is crazy! I shouldn’t be okay!”
Yet, I am. The world is literally falling apart, I can’t see past my own nose when it comes to the future and yet…I’m okay. Why?
Answer, Jesus. Jesus is the own reason I am okay, without Him I’m sure I would be depressed and imploding like so many around the world are somehow, I don’t know, but somehow Jesus makes it feel like things will be okay. Isn’t that what Paul said?
(For Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses for when I am weak I am strong) <paraphrased from 2 Corinthians 12:10
Even from prison Paul said that he was okay because of Jesus. Even when we aren’t okay, we are with Jesus.
Right from the fish’s mouth
Matthew 17:24-27
I have always found a profound sensation of peace and excitement when I read the story about Jesus and the coins in the fish’s mouth. God could have provided the money for them to enter the city in any sort of way. He could even have made the guards wave the fee, instead He put two coins in the mouth of a fish. A fish that just casually swam over to Jesus so He could retrieve the money. That’s amazing! Why would God do it this way? Perhaps to simply show us that He can provide in crazy ways that we would never have expected. I chose this image of a fish with three coins because it made me think of the way Jesus has paid for us. My family has three people in it and there are three coins, to me it reminds me that each of us has been paid for. (Yes. I know this is a Buddhist symbol. But I colored it and I choose what it means to me.) Why do we worry over finances, income, funding when God put money in a fish’s mouth? He can do anything. Just believe in Him.
Merry Christmas!
It’s Christmas time they said, but I shook my head. Sure enough there was our grand old tree and Christmas songs playing just for me. But where was the noise, the laughter, the toys? Where were the people that usually graced our floors? Christmas? It can’t be. Not yet. Not like this. Remember, Christmas has rushes to stores, it has relatives coming and going in hordes, it has too much food and so many gifts. This can’t be Christmas, this quiet hush. Then a voice spoke to me, “I was not amongst the rush. The people, the presents, the shopping and more. None of that was part of my story, on that old barn floor. The night air was cold, not a relative to be seen, and yet, we were happy. We had each other. That’s what Christmas means.”
Perhaps that is why Christmas is different this year. Because Jesus was getting lost and His voice hard to hear. So now we are far from what normal may seem, but let us have that draw us closer to the old manger scene.
Gifts
At Christmas time we think so much about gifts; giving and receiving. C.S. Lewis says that the greatest sacrifice was not on the cross but in the Manger. God reducing himself to a human baby to save the world. We mostly think of Jesus Himself when we think of Christmas, we don’t always acknowledge the sacrifice that God went through. There is no one on this earth who knows more love than a parent’s child, (Weather natural born or adopted).
Jesus is in truth an only child. Being one myself I know what that means. It means that there is no one else for your parent to share their love with other than you. You are top on their list and are more valued than anyone else. Now think, God gave His most valued treasure to us to be mocked, beaten and murdered by us. Every tear Jesus shed God would have felt, every lash, every nail. I know that God turned His face away because of the sin Jesus took for us, but that doesn’t mean His heart wasn’t in agony for His beloved son.
No one I know would sacrifice their child for anyone, let alone a world that mocked and hated them. So as God placed His child in Mary’s arms, knowing what would befall Him, He gave up the center of His heart to save us.
Christmas Sunday 2020It’s all part of the show.
One Christmas tradition that often gets over wrapped in tinsel and stage perfection is the tradition of having a Christmas pagent.
I used to love the pagents. Every year but one I was a sheep, and everyone knows that the sheep has the best role. We get to go all over the stage and crawl on our knees and bahh every so often. No elaborate speaches or moments of forgetting lines. Just being there, part of the show.
Perhaps that is the problem with Christmas these days. We get so caught up in what we should do we forget to just be part of the story. We feel we need to put on a great spector of glitz and glory more suited to the glittery gifts of the Wisemen but we forget to be the lowly sheep, on our knees before the King. No words to say. No spotlight. Just there. Part of God’s story.
Sing with me
What is one big thing that marks the Christmas season? Christmas music!
Songs that most people only listen to one season a year. Why is singing and music so important to us? Not why the scientists say it is, but why do you say it is? I can’t help but wonder if it’s all the angel’s fault that we break out in song on the street while walking in the afternoon, or that we hum while doing the dishes. When Jesus was born the angels didn’t beat box, or recite a pledge, or do the hokey pokey- as far as we know. What the angels did do was sing. Angels we have heard on high ring any bells? Lot’s of the old hymns and some of the new ones are based on specific scripture verses. Which is why dancing to ‘oh come let us adore Him’ or ‘away in a manger’ makes me uncomfortable. They aren’t just songs to sing, if that is all they are worth you might as well just listen to ‘boogy woogy Santa’ and get it over with. No. The carols were written from a connection to the Biblical and spiritual birth of Jesus Christ. The angels sang because? Who knows? Because they were filled with profound awe at their king’s sacrifice? Because He was a baby and they knew He would love the music? Perhaps because they knew that every great story starts with great intro music? I think they sang for the same reason most of us do, because they didn’t know what to say, how to phrase their emotions, and when you don’t know what to say, you sing. Right? They sang to praise their king, our king. Why do we sing at Christmas? Is it for Jesus? I’m not saying not to spin in the snow and belt out ‘winter wonderland’ absolutely do that! I do that often. But when you sing a carol, a song based on scripture, what does it mean to you?
Molded by His hands
Molded by His hands
Ginger bread houses. One Christmas tradition that we love is making gingerbread houses. Crafted by hands that desire ingestable art. If you ask the child with the house that has broken walls and missing gummy lights if their house disappoints them do you know what they will tell you, “it still tastes good.” Even with it’s missing parts and broken hearth the gingerbread house still has the quality of tasting good. And the artist loves that part of it, so the artist loves the whole of it. Just like how God loves us. We are His. That’s enough. He loves all of us, from our shattered dreams to our scarred pasts, He still loves us. Why? Because we are His. And He knows that we still have the chance to become what He wants us to be, and He hasn’t given up on us. Just like our gingerbread house, falling apart on one side, we still can serve our initial purpose. We can still, “taste good” no matter what we look like, it’s what’s inside that counts.
Let’s build a snowman!
Let’s build a snowman!
Since the beginning of time people have loved to create. Not just useful things to our survival but wonderful things that grab our attention and hold us in awe. We even create fleeting things, like snowmen. Why do we build something that is just going to fade with the sun? Why does the ball shaped man bring us so much joy when he smiles? Good questing. Perhaps it’s because all throughout every other season God is constantly creating. He makes flowers and babies, He causes the leaves to change color and the grass to grow, and grow and grow and grow, if you live where I do. When winter comes, however, everything goes dormant. It’s almost like God is letting His creative arts take a break. Outside of the beauty of sunrises and sets, and the horror frost, nothing new really happens. We are so used to creating that the pause makes us sad and restless, so what do we do? We create while waiting. Now we see snowmen and forts and garland on trees. Why not? We aren’t as amazing as the Creator but we love doing it, and it gives us a small look into what God does every day. We feel the snow crunch together under our fingers and soon there is a snowball fight. We find the perfect carrot in our fridge and we begin the human construction of a snowperson. Without God having created the snow we wouldn’t have anything to work with. But because He has we suddenly have a new world that we can play in.
I believe in you
A friend is someone who believes in you more than you believe in yourself.
It is so easy to doubt yourself. All most people see is their failures and that’s so sad. Why do people ask for someones opinion and then get angry when they don’t like what the other person says? Because we are all insecure and need someone to pat us on the back and say ‘well done kid!’ We search for compliments and assurance from others because we don’t really believe in ourselves. That’s why we need friends whom we can trust. If a trusted friend gives their opinion you are more likely to accept that it is true. A real friend will always cheer you on and spur you forward, but will also give you advice and hold you back from reckless things. If JRR Tolkien hadn’t had great friends to encourage him he might have never published the Lord of the Rings. Usually our friends can see more to us than we can see ourselves. You know what I am about to say. Jesus is the one true friend we all have and He is known for spurring us forward in the right things and holding us back in the wrong. Listen to Jesus because He believes in you. Even if He is pulling you back it’s not because there is something wrong with you, it’s because there is something wrong with the situation. Trust His words and His timing, He is a friend who will always believe in you, you just have to believe in Him.
Why do we need pastors?
‘Why do we need pastors?’
This is a question that I have not heard spoken out loud in a long time, but through people’s actions and subtle hints behind their speech it is clear that this is still a pondering. To be honest, I have never really had an answer, until today. I like to do something different with God each day instead of having the prayer time each night. This is just me, not saying that a prayer list is a bad thing. Tonight I chose to read one of my dad’s books on Biblical study and finally I have the answer to that question I was asked so long ago: we need pastors to interpret.
You say, ‘but any adult can read the Bible, it’s not like it’s written in Pig Latten.’
True, but that’s not my point. As the book says, ‘we all read the Bible thinking our interpretation is the right one.’
But it’s easy to misinterpret. For example (my example is also borrowed from this book) in Romans 13:14 the King James version states ‘make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.’
Where the New International Version explains that what Paul meant by “flesh” was sinful nature. If it wasn’t for the people who took the time to interpret this statement, we would believe that Paul meant our bodily comfort as so many assumed, but what he meant was the sinful nature that can come on us so easily. Pastors go to school and study the Bible, the interpretations, the deep delve discussions and weigh the different opinions against each other and against what the Bible says long before they ever grace a Church platform. They study so they can teach us. We need pastors so we can understand without those four years of College. We need people who asked question and gotten answers to answer our questions so we can answer other people’s questions. And now that question that I had no answer to has been explained. We have pastors to interpret for us.
Ref. How to read the Bible for all it’s worth
Carried in the cross 