What has become more difficult for me over the years is spending Christmas away from my family. Don't get me wrong, I have family all over the US. In Nashville, TN the Garbas and the Hills reside. They are family. In Grand Rapids, MI too many to count. And in Jacksonville/Springfield, IL blood family lives. Yet, Christmas has not been the same since the last time I sat around the parlour in Jos, Nigeria and sang Christmas carols until midnight with my family. 8 yrs on, I still long for the simplicity of sitting in a room with people who don't care what you got them for Christmas, just that you are there, singing off key marghi Christmas songs, watching the same Christmas tape we have watched since I was 5yrs old, wishing everyone 'Merry Christmas' at the stroke of midnight, praying together, and then off to bed because we had to be up for church the next day.
Today I read about 'The Real Christmas.' In Luke 2:25-35 we visit the story of Simeon and his long wait for the Christ. Well he meets him and this is what he says to Jesus' parents: v34-35 'Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too."'
From David McCasland (a writer for Our Daily Bread):
A quotation in our church’s Advent devotional guide caused me to rethink my approach to Christmas:
“Let us at all costs avoid the temptation to make our Christmas worship a withdrawal from the stress and sorrow of life into a realm of unreal beauty. It was into the real world that Christ came, into the city where there was no room for Him, and into a country where Herod, the murderer of innocents, was king.
“He comes to us, not to shield us from the harshness of the world but to give us the courage and strength to bear it; not to snatch us away by some miracle from the conflict of life, but to give us peace—His peace—in our hearts, by which we may be calmly steadfast while the conflict rages, and be able to bring to the torn world the healing that is peace.”
Christmas is not a retreat from reality but an advance into it alongside the Prince of Peace.
So here 's a lesson for me:
Despite the pain I feel each Christmas... I have that peace from the Prince of Peace
So it is well...
So here 's a lesson for me:
Despite the pain I feel each Christmas... I have that peace from the Prince of Peace
So it is well...
Christ did not come to shield us from
The grief and pain of life;
But those who have His peace inside
Can thrive within the strife. —Sper
(from ODB)
The grief and pain of life;
But those who have His peace inside
Can thrive within the strife. —Sper
(from ODB)
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1 comment:
it is well my dear. I too don't fancy christmas anymore. I'm trying to get in the spirit of the real meaning of it. But you've said it all...all that matters...merry christmas!
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