Christmas Curiosity
Café Menu for Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Today’s Special is: The Different Ways We View The Christmas Season
Carefully prepared just for you by your friend, Aj Luck
Main Ingredient:
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
Isaiah 7:14 NIV
Entrée:
I can remember it like it was yesterday. My 7th grade year; outside icy cold and snow white. Winter was here. Not only winter, but CHRISTMAS! It was less than a week away.
The suspense was driving me crazy with what all “Santa” was going to bring me on Christmas morning. I was long past the innocent years of believing that a jolly man in a red suit visited our home Christmas Eve with his bag full of toys. I knew “Santa” was my mom, who as a single parent, did the very best she could.
With that in mind, I KNEW the gifts were SOMEWHERE in our home. I was on a mission to find them. I couldn’t help myself. I had to know. I knew it was wrong, yet something deep within compelled me to keep searching until I found the “treasure.”
Sure enough two days before Christmas I found ALL of my gifts. Granted, it wasn’t a lot, but it was all my mom could afford.
I sat there, starring at all that she had gotten me. A Duran Duran picture disc album! A really cool letter jacket for my middle school and a Miami Vice pink t-shirt! WOO HOO! Jackpot! (Yes, yes I was a child of the 80's.)
I looked at all my gifts and loved them dearly. Then gingerly I placed them back exactly as I had found them. Christmas morning came and I unwrapped each gift knowing what was inside. There were no unexpected gifts, just the same ones I had found days earlier. It was the worst Christmas ever.
Even though I desperately needed to know what I was going to receive, once I did the joy was gone; not only for me, but for my mom, the gift giver. She knew I had found the gifts earlier. It broke her heart that the element of joy and surprise had been taken away from, what should have been, a precious moment.
This year, as we celebrate our King and Savior and all that He has and IS doing for us, let us be grateful for what we have; material and otherwise. Let’s try to not be in such a hurry to figure things out that we lose the preciousness of the moments our King has in store for us. Let us treasure and celebrate our Creator each day. He will surprise us. I promise.
Take Out:
One of the greatest ways the enemy can steal the precious moments God gives us, is by leading us to worry.
If you find yourself stressed out or worried, unable to figure out the next step, just breathe.
Know that BECAUSE God exhaled, you are inhaling. God has a good and perfect plan for you. He proved this when He sent His Son to earth that quiet winter season. He has everything already planned out and He knows what He is doing.
Don’t go “digging around in worry or fear” trying to figure Him out. Just take Him by the hand and walk with Him, into the life He has destined for you all along.
Dessert:
Dear heavenly Father, thank You so much for sending us Your only Son as the ultimate gift to Your creation. Help us remember that You have a plan and a purpose, it all starts with Jesus. Help us have a heart of celebration and thankfulness this year verses a heavy heart of worry and fear. Let Your joy and the unending love You have for us be enough to celebrate each and every day, as if it were Christmas all year long. Amen.
© 2015 by Aj Luck. All rights reserved.
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Originally published Tuesday, 22 December 2015.
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