It has been quite a while since I last posted on the blog. I apologize. I was very sick for a couple of weeks and simply did not take the time to write anything; however, I am much better now (thanks to the gentle adamant urging of the school nurse, a chest xray, blood work, a nebulizer, and medications!) and I am finally on the way back to full health. That is another story for another day.
Does anyone know what today is?! (guesses?) Today marks ONE WEEK until I get to fly home for Christmas. I cannot even wrap my mind around the thought of being about to spend Christmas at home! This year leading up to Christmas has been quite out of the ordinary. This is the first year that I spent any holiday away from my family (Thanksgiving in San Pedro was great! I got to see all the kids from my trip this summer!). This has also been the first time that I was not in the US to “get in the Christmas spirit;” however, I have mixed feelings about it. At first it was a struggle because I wanted to be able to shop for gifts for my family and go to Christmas plays, musicals, etc. I wanted to see all of the Christmas lights and enjoy my mom’s most amazing Christmas tree. I wanted it to be cold and maybe snowy (quite unlikely in NC). I wanted to be able to sing Christmas songs at church and hear them on the radio. Here it is different.
While wrestling with this problem (In my mind it was quite the problem because it didn’t “feel” like Christmas...), I realized that my thinking was all wrong. I realized that I too “commercialized” Christmas in some ways. I was brought back to the realization that it is not Christmas because it feels like Christmas. It’s not Christmas because I get caught in the hustle and bustle of the holiday and have many presents under the tree. Its not even Christmas because of the ornaments, the lights, the tree or the songs. Its Christmas because my Abba Father saw it fit to show mercy on his sinful people and send His precious Son to come into the world as a tiny baby to be the Savior of all mankind. That is why it is Christmas.
So while it may not feel like Christmas (especially in this 70-80 degree weather). This Christmas is about “God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which he has loved us.” (Ephesians 2:4) I want to share a quote that speaks so much truth in this holiday season. I pray that the Lord would change your thinking and direct it straight to the cross.
-Madison
“It is here, in the thing that happened at the first Christmas, that the profoundest and most unfathomable depths of the Christian revelation lie. 'The Word became flesh' (Jn. 1:14); God became man; the divine Son became a Jew; the Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, unable to do more than lie and stare and wriggle and make noises, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child. And there was no illusion or deception in this: the babyhood of the Son of God was a reality. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the Incarnation….The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity--hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory--because at the Father's will Jesus Christ became poor and was born in a stable so that thirty years later he might hang on a cross. It is the most wonderful message that the world has ever heard, or will hear.”
-J.I. Packer
