Was Your Christmas Cozy?
When I think of Christmas, I think of family times, togetherness, gifts, Jesus, and just good happy things. But think about it: the first Christmas was anything but that.
I read an email today from someone who is serving the Lord in a less than receptive country across the ocean somewhere. And he was talking about a cozy Christmas. This year was looking good, then the school shooting in Connecticut stopped us in our tracks and we wondered where the coziness was going to be. But he brought out that the first Christmas and the first few years of Jesus' life were anything but cozy. A manger? Really, not likely a clean manger like all the nativity scenes have. Instead of a crazed youth killing people, it was a crazed king killing babies. And yet why do we think it was cozy? Because God was in control.
Think of that popular picture of the bird in the nest safe and secure while the wind and storm and lightning rage all around. Why is the bird cozy? It is secure in the midst of the storm. We want to get cozy when the snow storm rages outside. Why? We feel secure in spite of the storm.
The point that was brought out in the email is that we are cozy when we are wrapped in God and secure from the storm that is raging around us.
There were storms this year--in a way I've never experienced storms. Shattered relationships, broken dreams, sickness: these things all have a way of rippling through our lives and breaking into our hearts and homes. But the question comes down to this? Are we trusting God in the midst of everything? Am I still cozy in spite of it all? Still wrapped up in my comforter of God's love and secure?
I didn't say it as well as the email did, but it was what I needed this Christmas. I felt it was a bittersweet Christmas this year; but yet I know God was in control. While on one hand there was loss; on the other there was joy. Joy in the little things; in the people who care; in the lovely fresh-baked buns just hand-delivered to my door just to let me know I was cared about. Yes, there is coziness this Christmas season at our house.
My hope for each of you as we end this year and begin again next year is that each and every day of your lives can be filled with the security that only trusting in God can bring. I don't know what the new year is going to bring--I know there will be a bit of pain and grief; but I also know if I allow myself to open up and experience God's Presence and Love, that it will be a good year.
And now, I will move on to another thing that makes me happy: organizing my bathroom shelves with the organizing things I just bought.
I read an email today from someone who is serving the Lord in a less than receptive country across the ocean somewhere. And he was talking about a cozy Christmas. This year was looking good, then the school shooting in Connecticut stopped us in our tracks and we wondered where the coziness was going to be. But he brought out that the first Christmas and the first few years of Jesus' life were anything but cozy. A manger? Really, not likely a clean manger like all the nativity scenes have. Instead of a crazed youth killing people, it was a crazed king killing babies. And yet why do we think it was cozy? Because God was in control.
Think of that popular picture of the bird in the nest safe and secure while the wind and storm and lightning rage all around. Why is the bird cozy? It is secure in the midst of the storm. We want to get cozy when the snow storm rages outside. Why? We feel secure in spite of the storm.
The point that was brought out in the email is that we are cozy when we are wrapped in God and secure from the storm that is raging around us.
There were storms this year--in a way I've never experienced storms. Shattered relationships, broken dreams, sickness: these things all have a way of rippling through our lives and breaking into our hearts and homes. But the question comes down to this? Are we trusting God in the midst of everything? Am I still cozy in spite of it all? Still wrapped up in my comforter of God's love and secure?
I didn't say it as well as the email did, but it was what I needed this Christmas. I felt it was a bittersweet Christmas this year; but yet I know God was in control. While on one hand there was loss; on the other there was joy. Joy in the little things; in the people who care; in the lovely fresh-baked buns just hand-delivered to my door just to let me know I was cared about. Yes, there is coziness this Christmas season at our house.
My hope for each of you as we end this year and begin again next year is that each and every day of your lives can be filled with the security that only trusting in God can bring. I don't know what the new year is going to bring--I know there will be a bit of pain and grief; but I also know if I allow myself to open up and experience God's Presence and Love, that it will be a good year.
And now, I will move on to another thing that makes me happy: organizing my bathroom shelves with the organizing things I just bought.
Well written Sis. You are loved by us all and my dear Sis you have a very caring husband.
ReplyDeleteOur pastor's Christmas message spoke to me deeply. Those first years were spent in Egypt, a foreign land. Strange culture, strange people, different customs. BUT. Egypt was for protection, and it was for preparation.
ReplyDeleteHow reassuring it is when we find ourselves in our own "Egypt seasons."
It brought such comfort to me.
Happy Monday!
That is a good thought to ponder; especially when I want to cry out and say, "But I don't like my Egypt right now." I do know that God has a purpose for me here and I need to simply trust Him. Thank you for sharing this.
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