by This year has been like no other! 2020 will, undoubtedly, go down in the annuals of history as being one of the most bizarre years in our modern world! Lockdowns, job losses, school graduations, birthdays, and weddings postponed or re-invented, funerals where no one could attend, riots, weather phenomenons, chaotic, (*fraudulent!!!) elections, and the list goes on! Someone said:
“This is not the year to get everything we want; this is the year to appreciate everything we have.”!!!
During this Christmas season, let’s take a new perspective. Like many of you, our family has also been tested and gone through tribulations this year. There have been plenty of things I would have wanted for this year and, things I would have wished did not happen. All the same, God knew just what was going on and He has control. God never changes.
Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”
Our Christmas budget will be limited this year. What do we really need, anyway? The affirmation of feeling loved because of a gift is not a top priority. There are other ways to show love. (*At this moment, my husband is cleaning the kitchen for me! Now, THAT shows more love than a box of candy–which he did just give me for my birthday and I am enjoying every bite! -And so I digress, as usual!). It is God’s gifts that we want to choose to focus on this year.
Philippians 3:13 “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,”
What are you reaching for? The most important and obvious gift is the gift of salvation that God provided by sending His son into this wicked earth to die for our sins. I thank God for saving me! I love decorating for Christmas and included in my Christmas decorations, I have a Nativity scene for nearly every room in my house as a reminder and testimony of God’s love to us.
There are physical things that I am thankful and appreciative for, too, as I reminisce this year. God provided some work opportunities for my husband. God provided a place for us to live. God has fed us. My husband and I have set a new record for surgeries, procedures, and visits to the emergency room yet God has taken care of us and brought us through without contracting Covid. God has given us a church family and pastor who love us and pray for us.
In the spiritual realm, God has given me His word to comfort me. He has given me hymns to know He is with me and hears me. He doesn’t put more on me or my family than He knows we can handle. Through some sorrows in our life this year, He has brought our family closer together. He has allowed people to be more open about spiritual matters and the opportunity to share His word.
My heart has been more tuned in to the plight of missionaries around the world. Most all have been affected by the virus either in their family and most assuredly in their church family. Many have lost support. Some have not been able to get back to the field where their hearts are. Others cannot leave the field. New missionaries risk traveling on deputation–(IF, they can even get a meeting!). God has burdened me to pray more thoughtfully for these servants.
What is on your Christmas list? This year is a year to get our minds off of ourselves and to be appreciative of what we do have. We must choose between sorrow or joy. It is a year of reckoning of what is really important.
John 16:32 “And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.”
While we have the Holy Spirit dwelling with us now, our greatest joy is looking forward to that day of the Rapture when we meet Jesus in the clouds. Until then, fill your Christmas list with memories of things you are appreciative of and use those gifts for His honor and glory! Be appreciative of the things you have!
