Before the New Year: a little more Christmas?

I'm already seeing it. Post-Christmas discounts, Valentine's candy, and superstore racks of "A New Year, A New You!" stocked with vitamins, performance socks, and granola. 

I'm not ready. I don't even want to talk about New Year's yet. I know it's coming, I can't stop time, but Christmas, all that we waited for, shopped for, prepared for--it just happened. Can't we linger here for a moment? 

When our daughter was tiny she used to love this video we would get from the library about Elmo from Sesame Street wanting Christmas to be every day and last forever. The moral was, if that was so then it would be ordinary or even tiresome, and certainly expensive. So no, Elmo, Christmas cannot last more than one day. Like me, he was disappointed but understood. But after the gifts have come, can I not just sit in the wonder of all things Christmas and enjoy it, before I pack it all away and shed the party pounds?

In the practical, there is always something spiritual. In fact the reverse is even more amazing: in the spiritual, there is always something highly practical. Christmas is about hope. The hope fulfilled in the Messiah coming is sung in Christmas carols, celebrated in the creches, and hopefully fills our hearts as we embrace this short season. But as I have shared before, it's also the hope that because Christ came and  completed the work God had for Him in living the life we could not have lived, dying the death we should have died, and rising again to bring us the life we could never obtain apart from Him, we can trust that like He promised He is coming again. And yet Christmas is just one glorious day, then it's over. Our minds turn to other things, life marches on, and Christmas gets boxed up. I believe that's the case, and has to be, because our hope in Christ coming again is not yet fulfilled. We don't get to abide or stay in Christmas or Christmas time. Christmas and all the beauty, wonder, excitement and fellowship is a glimpse of heaven. Everyday magnified, intense joy and ongoing, thrilling celebration--that would be like heaven. But, Christ has not yet come again. So, while we can have a taste of His coming, we can celebrate as a part of an expression of the Good News, we can celebrate as His people because He is in us and with us, we are still waiting, hoping, and journeying with Him towards that place and time where it is all realized. He hasn't come to take us to the place He is preparing. We haven't gone to live with Him there. I believe heaven is in a perpetual state of the feelings of Christmas Eve; last minute preparing, high joy and anticipation of the best celebration yet. When He comes and we go to be with Him, then what we experience together there will make Christmas pale in comparison. It's in that real place that we will get to abide. Until then, He calls us to abide in Him in the day to day living, beyond Christmas and into New Year's.

How do we linger here and then take a bit of the wonder of Christmas with us into the New Year?
Just a few moments to linger with you, Lord. You know I love Christmas. 

This year, as I read the Christmas story in Luke and drank in all the red, green, sparkling white, and twinkling beauty in our home, I was struck by Luke 2:19-20. "But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told."

We can linger here by pausing for a moment. Sit in the few days between Christmas and New Year's and explore the real treasures. "These things"...what grace gifts did God give over the holidays? What did He reveal about Himself, His Son, your heart, His incredible presence and provision? What struck you this season? What experiences were precious, meaningful, and drew you to love and worship? Treasure up those things. Then ponder them in your heart or sit in those thoughts, words, feelings, and memories and give them the value they truly have. Consider them from different angles. Be open to a conversation with God, the Giver of every good and perfect gift, about His wonders and treasures. You get to sit in the wonder. You don't have to tell God about them, define them, or box them up neatly. Ponder them. 

Mary wasn't the only one that experienced the greatness of that first Christmas. The shepherds had a huge Christmas! After hearing and seeing the Truth, they went back to their normal life, like we all do, but they had to live differently. They came to their God, because of this Messiah, with worship that carried over beyond the wonder of the manger. Could it be that beyond Christmas is an opportunity to worship, to glorify and praise God out loud with our lives and mouths, because we hear Him and see Him during the season? All the Christmas music, ornaments, nativity scenes, and on and on that remind us of Christ, that appeal to our ears and eyes, are those the tuning of the orchestra in our souls to bring forth such spiritual music that our mouths and lives can't help but express? More plainly, does Christmas push a reset button for our worship for the rest of the year? I hope, with true expectation, that Christmas causes my life to be different. I hope that I leave this season taking with me eyes and ears so full of Jesus that I have to live differently, interact with my God differently, and share it with whoever is in ear shot. 

Treasures and worship. That's what we get to take into the New Year with us if we will stop long enough to ponder what our ears and eyes have experienced this Christmas. Treasures and worship. That's where we get to abide with Him until Christmas truly is every day with Him in that place He is still preparing. 
Then, gloriously yet not surprisingly, it will be treasures and worship for all eternity.

Just another seed of my faith,
Ginny

Advent - The NEW magic of Christmas

Advent came to life for me when my kids were small. As a child, we were the kids that lit the candles at church in the advent wreath. There were four of us. Four girls, four candles, it fit. But, not growing up in a liturgical church, advent was a bit lost on me until the year the magic was gone.

Christmas had always been so magical. The anticipation, the wonder, the hope, the celebration. Gifts, food, family, friends. As a child, Christmas was my favorite time of year. And my parents, by God’s grace and mercy, had done a good job of focusing on Christ at Christmas. I became an adult, and I knew what was under the tree, for everyone. I burned the Advent candle at both ends between cookies, parties, church skits, crafts for the kids, a solo in the Christmas Eve service, shopping, baking, and on and on. I woke up one year and realized, “I missed Christmas.” Oh, it happened. But I missed it all the same. It was a blur and then it was over. My heart never really celebrated. My soul never really engaged wonder and hope. The sparkle was all but gone. My hands had been a part of Christmas, but the rest of me? I purposed that year to never miss Christmas again. I wanted something that would thrill my heart and bring a sense of wonder once again, and I found that in celebrating or observing Advent. 

Advent is an old church tradition starting four Sundays before Christmas and ending on Christmas Day. Advent uses scripture and usually a weekly theme that focuses our hearts back on Christ. The wonder in my heart could only be met by the greatest gift I ever received, the gift of Christ and salvation in Him. Every year, the practice of Advent brings me back to that place of worship and reveling in Him! I look forward to it so much every year!

The first year I did it, Christmas Day came as a surprise to me. I had not paid attention to our Advent guide and the scripture tied to that day. I think I assumed it would be one from the birth narratives in Matthew or Luke. But, my heart was stunned when we opened the last scripture and I read these words,

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” – Jn. 14:1-6

My soul. This whole Advent thing was not necessarily a looking back with reverence, awe, and love. It was looking forward. Advent or, coming, is certainly about celebrating that He came. But Advent and Christmas Day are really about the fact that He is coming! What wonder! What awe! He will come back just as sure as He came. And He will come for me. Just like He did so long ago.

This time, the Advent will be different. He will come to take me to be where He is, not to come dwell where we are. It will be a final Advent. I will get to go be with Him and the Father because He came that first Christmas to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

We still use most of the same scriptures for Advent that we've used in the past. And every Christmas morning my heart thrills at the prospect of opening, reading and meditating on John 14:1-6. I know it will be there, just like as a child I knew the stockings would be stuffed with Lifesavers and oranges and our “Santa” gift would be in front of the tree. But the magic never fades. His coming shines with such radiance, hope, and immense joy that Christmas holds fresh promise for me. For us. Maybe this year will be the year. As the church for centuries has said, “Even so, come Lord Jesus!”

Just another seed of my faith,

Ginny