Reason #699
I had a few last minute Christmas errands to run this afternoon. It never fails, no matter how hard I try to get everything done beforehand, I still end up forgetting something. Thankfully, I got off work at noon and so I had plenty of time to get what I needed. I came home and finished wrapping my final two gifts, and I flipped through the TV channels in an attempt to find something Christmas-y to watch.
I landed on the last hour of the Polar Express, which ended up being my best option. I started watching the part where the train ends up in the North Pole and the kids finally get to see Santa. The main character has this little bell that's ring can only be heard by kids who truly believe in Santa. Anyway, he manages to lose this special bell but doesn't realize it until he's on the train ride home. This little guy is so upset about the fact that he no longer possesses this bell, and you can see the utter disappointment on his face. To make a long story short, the little boy and his sister wake up early the next morning to all the gifts left by Santa. After opening all of their gifts, his sister hands him a little box with his name on it. He opens it and that little bell is inside. Gets me every time. I don't know why, but sensing the joy that he has from receiving that little bell makes me want to cry. And he goes on to say that as he grew older, his friends began to slowly lose the ability to hear the sound of the bell. He, however, could always hear it because he never stopped believing. After all, who would ever stop believing in an incredible experience they lived through first hand?
Don't you know that's how the shepherds felt that night? Lowly, humble people just doing their job and the next thing they know, they're standing in a stable staring at the Son of God. Watching his little eyes flutter as he slept, seeing his little chest rise and fall. Watching his mother rock him back and forth, welcoming him to this new place. The long awaited Savior, the promised one, was here. The best gift God had ever given humanity, and they were getting to experience it first hand. Don't you know their eyes will filled with awe and wonder, amazed that this was really happening and they were getting to take part in it. And I have to believe their heart were bursting with joy and the sign of this miracle. Unexplainable, incomparable, indescribable joy. They got to be the ones to welcome him, to be the first to receive this precious gift, and I know that that night had to be one of those pivotal moments for them where their lives were changed forever.
I am so grateful to be on this side of Christmas. To know about Jesus' birth. To see how it has changed the course of history. And tonight, at the Christmas Eve service, as we sang about his arrival, my heart was filled with gratitude. Unexplainable, incomparable, indescribable gratitude that God would wrap himself in flesh and enter into this world for me. That He'd give so much of himself for people who would one day nail him to a tree, take him out of pledges, schools, government, media and any other place they can find, pushing him as far away as possible, and yet He still came. He came to bring comfort to hurting souls, peace for the anxious, rest to the weary, hope to the brokenhearted, joy for sorrow, love to the rejected, and forgiveness to the fallen. He came to change our lives forever so that we might not only know the truth, but that we'd believe it, live it, and experience the beauty of the most wonderful gift we could ever receive.
#699 - For Jesus, the most wonderful gift we have ever received.
"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." - Isaiah 9:6
I landed on the last hour of the Polar Express, which ended up being my best option. I started watching the part where the train ends up in the North Pole and the kids finally get to see Santa. The main character has this little bell that's ring can only be heard by kids who truly believe in Santa. Anyway, he manages to lose this special bell but doesn't realize it until he's on the train ride home. This little guy is so upset about the fact that he no longer possesses this bell, and you can see the utter disappointment on his face. To make a long story short, the little boy and his sister wake up early the next morning to all the gifts left by Santa. After opening all of their gifts, his sister hands him a little box with his name on it. He opens it and that little bell is inside. Gets me every time. I don't know why, but sensing the joy that he has from receiving that little bell makes me want to cry. And he goes on to say that as he grew older, his friends began to slowly lose the ability to hear the sound of the bell. He, however, could always hear it because he never stopped believing. After all, who would ever stop believing in an incredible experience they lived through first hand?
Don't you know that's how the shepherds felt that night? Lowly, humble people just doing their job and the next thing they know, they're standing in a stable staring at the Son of God. Watching his little eyes flutter as he slept, seeing his little chest rise and fall. Watching his mother rock him back and forth, welcoming him to this new place. The long awaited Savior, the promised one, was here. The best gift God had ever given humanity, and they were getting to experience it first hand. Don't you know their eyes will filled with awe and wonder, amazed that this was really happening and they were getting to take part in it. And I have to believe their heart were bursting with joy and the sign of this miracle. Unexplainable, incomparable, indescribable joy. They got to be the ones to welcome him, to be the first to receive this precious gift, and I know that that night had to be one of those pivotal moments for them where their lives were changed forever.
I am so grateful to be on this side of Christmas. To know about Jesus' birth. To see how it has changed the course of history. And tonight, at the Christmas Eve service, as we sang about his arrival, my heart was filled with gratitude. Unexplainable, incomparable, indescribable gratitude that God would wrap himself in flesh and enter into this world for me. That He'd give so much of himself for people who would one day nail him to a tree, take him out of pledges, schools, government, media and any other place they can find, pushing him as far away as possible, and yet He still came. He came to bring comfort to hurting souls, peace for the anxious, rest to the weary, hope to the brokenhearted, joy for sorrow, love to the rejected, and forgiveness to the fallen. He came to change our lives forever so that we might not only know the truth, but that we'd believe it, live it, and experience the beauty of the most wonderful gift we could ever receive.
#699 - For Jesus, the most wonderful gift we have ever received.
"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." - Isaiah 9:6