Well...it's coming ! The craziness of the Christmas season has arrived. My heart always has mixed feelings at Christmas...as I'm sure is the case for most people. On the one hand, I get excited at the thought of Christmas music and decorations, and I love holiday parties and treats :) But on the other hand , I often find myself longing for things that the Lord has not given me, and I know I'm not alone in that. For some people, it may be material things that they find their hearts longing for. For others, perhaps, it may be painful memories of Christmases gone by, or present struggles in relationships with family members that have them pining away for the apparent state of bliss that others seem to have. For me personally, I find singleness at Christmas time to be my biggest challenge, when yet another year has gone by and it seems as if I'm in exactly the same place I was last year. When I look around and see other women my age with their own families, starting a new generation of traditions, I always have the tendency to throw myself a little pity party. Why has nothing changed for me yet Lord? Why am I still here? I don't like here.
So this year, instead of giving into the temptation to wallow, I am going to make a conscious effort to turn my eyes upon the Lord. To seek His face and try...though I know I won't do it perfectly and will have to literally fight against my fleshly thoughts...but I will try to remember the actual reason for Christmas. I will try to set my mind and heart on Jesus and to celebrate His birth, because there are about a million reasons that the bible gives for us to be thankful, particularly at Christmas. Each day from now until December 24th, I will post a quick thought, in hopes that it may be an encouragement to you as well.
Here goes today's thought...
I am thankful that we have a God, who willingly chose to come to earth and dwell amongst us, so that He eventually would save us from our own sin as we choose to trust in Him.
John 1 :1-4 Says : " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; In Him was life and that was the light of all mankind" (NIV)
I learned this year that "The Word" in this case refers to Jesus, the second person of the trinity. So Jesus is God. And He has always existed, and created everything. And he chose to take on human flesh. He is GOD and chose to come to earth and live a perfect life amongst a bunch of messed up people, so that he might have a relationship with us.
With me.
With you.
It's not just kind of crazy. It's totally crazy.
And so...I am thankful.