'Tis the Season

I love this time of year to reflect and think about what is really important in our lives. I think about how Mary and Joseph must have felt sharing the birth of their Savior, but not by any means in the way they expected. Far from their minds when they first heard the news, I am sure, was the thought that our Lord would be born in a wooden manger...and even further that he would die on a wooden cross. The fact that He did not enter the world in the world's idea of a King's entrance, nor die a King's death (so they thought)says nothing of the Kingship of Christ, but only the depraved circumstances of our World.

I like to sit and day dream about how I think that my labor and delivery and those first moments with the new baby are going to be. Then, how emotional we feel right before the baby comes, and right after. In light of our Savior, Mary is just a blessed woman with no other signifigance, but she was a mother just like me. I can't imagine how those last moments must have felt....but then all that fades. Our Savior's Life and Sacrifice was so much more than about just being born. We celebrate our birthdays, but does the day we were born say anything about the life we are living? No, it doesn't. How wonderful it is though, to celebrate a life that came into the world to bring us hope, love, and most importantly, our salvation. There is not one life that is more celebrated than the life of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. How sad the world has no concept of this...but through God's grace, He has blessed this season with the outpouring and recieving of His Gospel through things like Cantatas and Christmas services. . Our ideas and ways of thinking are so far removed from God's ways...so, we celebrate, each according to our conviction, the remembrance of our Lord's life as a man. He lived a sinless life in a sinful world and then took our sins onto His perfection and died under the overwhelming weight and anguish of the world's darkness of sin then rose again to usher those of us who believe on Him into a glorious everlasting life. How can my heart not rejoice and sing of this wonderous, most Awesome Miracle!! This year, the day we celebrate Jesus' birthday falls on Sunday. Please pray that our churches will be full and hearts will be open to truly receive what Christ did to save us. Have a most Blessed and Merry Christmas my beloved friends and family.