By Shirley Wiggins
The day dawns clear, crisp and cold.Trains of thought come into my mind this morning like engines rolling around the hills and valleys on tracks that will take each one to its appointed destination.
Casual observers who watch trains go by have no idea where any
of them may be going, but the engineers and the conductors onboard know
perfectly well where their train will come to a stop at its pre-determined
destination.
I am tempted to jump on board one of my thought-trains this
morning and see where it will take
me. But, I don’t. I wait. I feel tired and melancholy today, with an
overall sense of time passing in a rush, and I want to hold on to my
minutes. I’m not ready to move on, yet,
not with this strong sense of something left incomplete.
So I wait, and let the thoughts come and go. And, I contemplate and meditate as I read my
two favorite devotionals¹ for my early morning quiet time.
Christmas went by much too quickly for me again this
year. There was so much I wanted to do
and share and savor and have time to enjoy, but the calendar and the clock both
said, “No, you must hurry.”
And so, I fear I left many important things undone. I love Christmas and each year I want to fully
enjoy the season, most of all, I want to
savor the most important aspect of Christmas:
the reason for Christmas.
Every year I experience this vague sense of disappointment –
this sense that something was missing for me.
Maybe it is just the fact that I love to linger long with those things
that bring me pleasure and with those people who are dearest to me.
But, there never seems to be quite enough time.
I think I will take this time now and just enjoy this second
cup of coffee, and let my fingers run across this computer keyboard and see
where my mind takes me.
But not with my idle mind in the engineer’s seat. I want
the God of all creation to guide my thoughts by His Holy Spirit who knows the
mind of the Christ of Christmas. And, it
is to Him that I direct my prayer, asking Him to guard my heart and guide my
mind as He directs my thinking.
I don’t have any more time to waste, and this isn’t a waste of
time. This is my life. My life will not end
when I breathe my last breath of God-given air on this earth.
My life will extend
forever, and so will yours, time without end, for all eternity stretches before
each human who has ever breathed in the breath of life. Time
will change but it will never extinguish the God-given life.
So, I have the time. I
have time to explore the words of God with the Word of God.
Another train of thought has returned, and it is one I’ve
thought on a lot since I first heard about a large sign that was made and paid
for and placed high above the ground in a city just in time for Christmas this year.
I don’t remember the specific wording of the sign’s printed
question, but I surely remember the answer someone assigned to the question.
The question basically asked who needs Christ at Christmas,
and someone decided the answer was, “Nobody.”
When I heard that, for a moment I was left astounded and
speechless as hundreds of my own questions came pouring into my head.
Like, has this person (or these people) given serious
consideration to the Christ of Christmas, and if they have, how could they have
reached such an arrogantly erroneous answer?!
What on earth are they basing their conclusion on?!
I considered that staggering arrogance that someone concluded
that their answer applies to every human being!
No one needs to think for themselves, as this person (or group) has
determined for all of us that not one of us “needs” Christ.
I am disappointed and dismayed every time I see or hear of
another instance of disrespect paid to the God of Creation, whose love is so high, and deep, and wide, and
complete, that, without His help, none of us can comprehend His majestic greatness.
I recognize my own puny efforts at sharing what He means to me
as a mere drop in an ocean; yet, He has so impacted my life that I cannot keep
silent. I absolutely must add my small
voice to the testimonials of His goodness, His grace, and His loving kindnesses
and forgiveness, and the multitudes of
His great and good gifts that He continues to pour out upon His world and its
inhabitants.
God is so great that I cannot find words to adequately express
what it is that my heart loves most about Him.
Love. He is Love. We don’t even know what love is apart from
Him. We ‘swim’ in this vast ocean of His
love and fail to recognize Him and His kindness to us. We can’t even fully appreciate His loving
kindness and His great faithfulness to pour out grace upon grace to people who
can never be worthy of His holiness.
And yet, He chooses to lovingly teach us again and again about
Himself! He goes to great lengths to
reveal Himself to people – many of whom cannot yet see their great need of this
One Great God.²
He patiently teaches about His love, His power, His
sovereignty, His supreme rule and authority – all the while continuing to give
people the right to choose whether they will believe Him or call Him a liar
and/or profess not to even believe that He exists. Amazing!
Astounding!
The Holy Bible. His
Holy Word. The Christ of Christmas: Jesus Christ,
Immanuel = God with us!
God is with us! Embrace
Him by embracing His Word, Jesus Christ Who became flesh and came to earth to
dwell for a time; and His written Word, the Holy Bible.
If you do not have a Bible, find one: get
your hands on a Bible and read it for
all it is worth! Find a church where
Jesus Christ is exalted, and worship Him for
all He is worth, and enroll in a Bible study class and study His Word for all you are worth!
Life will not end permanently with our death, and we will all
live forever somewhere. Make sure your somewhere is in the holy
presence of God, our Savior who came to earth one day – the original Christmas Day – on a search and rescue
mission: Jesus
Christ, …“the Son of Man, has come to
seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10.
Don’t let anyone else determine for you whether or not you
need the Christ of Christmas --- you seek His face for yourself and you decide
based on the Truth of His Word. You will
live with your choice for eternity – time without end.
¹Streams in the
Desert compiled by Mrs. Charles E.
Cowman; and Daily Light for Every Day with Anne Graham Lotz.
² To be a child of God, you must first
have a relationship with Christ.
John 3:16-18 (ESV): “For God so loved the
world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not
perish but have eternal life. For God
did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the
world might be saved through Him.
Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe
is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son
of God.”If you have never acknowledged your sin and confessed it by agreeing with God about it, and received Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord of your life, you are encouraged to listen for His still small voice to invite you to pray the prayer of repentance sincerely confessing your sin and asking Jesus to cleanse you of that sin. If you repent and turn from your sin, to Christ, and “confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead; you will be saved," according to God's Word, the Holy Bible, in Romans 10:9.
If you have just prayed to receive
Christ, tell someone. Then become a
participant in a church where God is exalted, and His Word, The Holy Bible, is
taught as the standard of life.
