Tag Archives: celebrating Christmas

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“The Savior’s Come”

 

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Abigail, with the help of her boys, made this Lego video last year. It illustrates a song written by one of their pastors, Paul Cummings. They did an amazing job!

I LOVE how it proclaims the TRUTH of the greatest gift we celebrate on Christmas.

Watch it with children and grandchildren – you will all be blessed!

Merry Christmas!

 

 

 

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Let Our Hearts Prepare Him Room

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I have spent a significant amount of time this month preparing rooms. I usually wait until December 1st to start decorating, partly because I need to prepare the rooms to decorate. I love having family here over Thanksgiving, so there is a lot to clean up.

I don’t want to decorate dust bunnies.

What I enjoy most about decorating for Christmas are the memories. We have many “tacky” yet priceless ornaments that our children have made. Some have pictures on them which are especially fun for the grandchildren to see. “My mom looked like that?”

Preparing the rooms causes a flood of memories to sweep over me.

Where is the food?

The idea of “room” denotes two thoughts for me.

  1. room – a physical space defined by walls
  2. room – a space, place

One of my favorite Christmas Carols – Joy to the World – has a line that says – 

    Let every heart prepare Him room…

As this line repeated itself over and over in my mind I began to think of the meaning of those words.

How do I prepare room in my heart?

I thought about how I prepare the rooms in my home.

  • clean out the dirt and mess
  • put out clean sheets and towels
  • fill the room with pleasant smells
  • decorate the room so guests feel welcome – like a favorite book or toy

This parallels what I must do in my heart to prepare my life to receive Jesus.

  • clean out the sin by asking forgiveness and repenting  – I John 1:9
  • put on the robe of righteousness that Jesus gives – Isaiah 61:10
  • worship, show love – these are a sweet fragrance to God – Ephesians 5:2 AMP
  • fill my heart with God’s Word, write His words on my heart – Proverbs 3:3

Once my heart is prepared, Jesus will live in me through His Spirit. I must be intentional about preparing to receive Jesus  – just as I am intentional about decorating rooms in my house for Christmas. An artist friend, Sheila Atchley, posted yesterday that “We can only give to others what we first OWN for ourselves.”  YES!  Only that which is in our hearts. Are our hearts prepared for Jesus?

Isaiah 9: 6-7 says –

6 For a child is born to us,
    a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
    And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 His government and its peace
    will never end.
He will rule with fairness and justice from                                                                                           the throne of his ancestor David
    for all eternity.

Let our hearts prepare Him room.

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Our Best Christmas Tree

Tree with Lincoln

We couldn’t afford it, but I wanted a REAL Christmas tree. This was in 1980 and trees didn’t cost all that much. Yet we had only $15.00 in our checking account and a Christmas tree would not have provided food for our then three children.

Our bank balance was low for several reasons.
1- We had just closed on our first home, purchased for $35,000.
2- It was November and the furnace needed a “tune up” immediately so that took our $200 reserve fund.
3- We didn’t have much money to start with. I was staying home with our three children aged 3, 2, and 9 months old, so we were living on a library cataloger’s salary.

God had shown himself so faithful in the purchase of our house. He had provided all we needed and there was one more paycheck coming before the property taxes were due.

God had promised to supply all our needs according to his riches in glory and we had witnessed that, one bill at a time.

Christmas trees are not a need.

I knew this, yet I wanted a Christmas tree for our first Christmas in our first home of our own.

So, I told God how I felt. I wanted a Christmas tree, but if it was not to be, I asked God to change my heart about a desire for a tree.

It was a cold, dark night. We were driving back from a holiday dinner at a friend’s house who lived in Cashiers, a remote community higher in elevation farther up in the mountains.

Phil came around a curve and we saw something black and large lying in the road. He pulled our little VW bug over and stopped. There in the middle of the road was a big, BEAUTIFUL, Christmas tree!

It must have fallen off a truck hauling Christmas trees from the farms up the mountain. It was dark, no trucks around, nor any other cars. It was there just for us!

It was our Christmas tree – and much lovelier than one we would have purchased. Phil opened the trunk, which is in the front in a VW bug, put the tree part way in, and tied the trunk down as far as he could. He slowly drove the 18 miles home.

Did God provide that tree? Does God care about Christmas trees?

Some Christians I know and love feel that all the trappings of Christmas take away from it’s real meaning. These individuals choose to celebrate Jesus’s birth in simple ways. I respect that and honor their motivation.

I also know that receiving that Christmas tree during a time of financial need made me feel God’s love for me in a very personal way. I felt that my Heavenly Father heard me and answered the cry of my heart.

Why?

Because He loves me.

Was it a coincidence that the tree fell off the truck at that time? No other car could have passed by it without effort because the tree was smack in the middle of the narrow, winding road. It meant that the tree fell off and we were the first car to go by.

Maybe it was chance.

Yet it answered my prayer to the God of the universe who is my Heavenly Father.

Gifts often demonstrate love. Christmas is the time we celebrate God’s gift of his Son, Jesus.

John 3:16-17(NIV)

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Every year when I put up our tree, I remember the best tree we ever had. More importantly I am reminded of my Heavenly Father who knows my heart and loves me.

Sometime I will tell you about the wreaths that fell off a truck.

PS – a great story to read to your children is – The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Huston. It is a lovely story with a meaningful message.