You're Here- Francesca Battistelli (with lyrics)

It's Christmas day.  For many people, it is a day filled with gift exchanges, family gatherings and lots of food.  For some people, its a day filled with stress:  Did I get my child exactly what they wanted for Christmas?  How am I going to pay our bills in January with all the money I spent this year?  Is this going to be the year I get along with my sister?  And yet for some people, it is the most isolating and lonely day of the  year.  No matter what, Christmas leaves us longing for something more.

I think at one time or another I have found myself in each situation- a happy Christmas, a stressful Christmas and a lonely Christmas.  But in every Christmas of my life, I have learned there is no PERFECT Christmas... food gets burned,,, your football team loses... kids argue...adults bicker... the tree falls over thanks to a pet... This  year, I have found the perfect Christmas.

The reason we celebrate Christmas is the birth of our Savior... that moment when God broke through our hopeless world and offered us the best gift of all... HIMSELF.  At that exact moment 2000+ years ago... it was a perfect Christmas and this year, we can celebrate that perfect Christmas- not only today but everyday for the rest of our lives.  The gift is perfect.  The gift is free.  The gift is eternal.  The gift is fulfilling.  The gift is full of love, peace and joy.  

Building 429 - "Saving Christmas" Music Video

A few months ago, I was posed a question, “How do you plan to spend the Christmas holiday?”  I knew this year, with all of its struggles, needed a change.  Thankfully I have the best family in the world who understood this need.  So, we planned… A Christmas week-end in one of my favorite places on earth, Table Rock State Park in Pickens, SC.  In the past, we have rented a cabin for a week each summer but this was the first time we had done a winter vacation.  We spent the first day, decorating the cabin.  All the mom’s brought tree ornament ideas… baked orange slices, gingerbread men, beads, bells and buttons… you name it we did it.  

However, it quickly morphed from making tree decorations to making an entire “winter wonderland” cabin.  With homemade snowflakes hanging from every window, doorway and even the ceiling.  The kids snuck out of the living room and created name placards for each door and even a “winter wonderland” sign for the outside the cabin.  It said, 

“Winter wonderland… but it’s warm and the decorations aren’t real.” 

 It started me thinking… how many times are our Christmas celebrations just like that?  Warm and fuzzy for the world to see…. But not real.  I don’t want that.  I want real, meaningful, authentic.  

Sometimes the tinsel and the glitter

Are the seasons like a womb

They can hide away the savior

At the center of it all

Are the times that more like starlight

Burning in the winter sky

Are the curly, shining corners

To the holy land of lights

Beyond the noise

Behind the lights

Pass the chaos of December's not so silent nights

This time of year I find

A thousand signs that lead me to the child divine 

I hold Him dear 

In this heart of mine

I'm saving Christmas

In the house or at the struggle

We keep praying for some peace

While the old familiar stories

Calling out to you and me

Light of The World - Lauren Daigle - Worship Video w/lyrics- Christmas

Waiting...  God's chosen people of the Old Testament waited while struggling to follow the law and prophets, God's chosen people of the New Testament sought the Messiah coming to earth, the people waited.  Did they feel abandoned?  Did they wonder each day if it would be the day that God would deliver them?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer waited.  While in prison he waited.  But he didn't sit on his hands and wait for God's deliverance.  He used his time to reflect on God and the true meaning of Christmas.  He wrote in one of his letters:

Christmas is like a "prison cell, in which one waits, hopes - and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent” 

Tonight, as I wait for Christmas Eve to turn until Christmas Morning, I wonder... what am I doing while I am waiting?  Do I wait with an expectant heart?  Do I long to know the mystery of God made flesh?  Do I understand that waiting shows me my fallen humanity and God's sacrifice of giving me the best Christmas gift of all?

Still My God - Avalon

I've heard many quotes on experiencing life in the valleys or on the mountain top.  Some of my favorite are:

"Transformation is a process, and as life happens there are tons of ups and downs.  

It's a journey of discovery-

 there are moments on the mountaintops and moments in deep valleys of despair"

 - Rick Warren

"The marvelous richness of human experience would lose something of rewarding joy 

if there were no limitations to overcome.  

The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful 

if there were no dark valleys to traverse,"  

-Helen Keller

"Life is supposed to be a series of peaks and valleys.  

The secret is to keep the valleys from becoming  Grand Canyons." 

-Bernard Williams

Its true.  Life is a roller coaster.  It is full of ups and downs... peaks and valleys, twists and turns.  Its never predictable.  Its not stable and for me it is unsettling.  I've been reluctant to rejoice on the mountaintops because I know I will face a valley.

There is a scripture I recently read from Daniel.  As a child I learned the story of the firey furnace.  But somehow, I never saw 4 little words sandwiched into this story of courage.

"If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king.  But even 

IF HE DOES NOT, 

let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up." 

Daniel 3:17,18

11 months ago, my entire life was a valley- dark, grey, and oh... so confusing.  I clasped onto the only One who could see me through.  And He did.  Christ held on and carried me through that dark time.  He didn't change my circumstances or my situation which He could have done so easily.  Rather He stayed with me in the "blazing fire".

1 month ago, all was right in my world- peaceful, serene and light hearted.  God blessed us unexpectedly with a home of our own.  It was an answer to prayer that I had not prayed.  But I had a hard time celebrating because I feared the next valley.

Why do I fear the next valley in life?  God has proven himself faithful... through the Old Testament He showed the red cord of redemption and it continued through the cross and the promise of salvation.  He continues to show his faithfulness in the promise of the Holy Spirit to guide us.  In both of these situations, God has shown we are not alone.  No matter the valley or the mountaintop, in Christ I can confidently say, "He can help me in this current situation.  He will stay by my side.  But even if he chooses not to answer my prayers in the way I thought He should, I will not give up.  Nothing, no situation, no circumstance can separate me from His love.  It is the same yesterday, today and forever,"

A quote from my devotional worded it like this, "We can have the joy of the Lord if we have an 'inspite of everything' quality of faith.  Our hope is not based on getting God to do what we want but in wanting Him regardless of how events work out."- God's Best for my Life.

through it all (lyrics) - Andrae Crouch

I've had many tears and sorrows,

I've had questions for tomorrow,

there's been times I didn't know right from wrong.

But in every situation,

God gave me blessed consulation,

that my trials come to only make me strong.

through it all,

through it all,

I've learned to trust in Jesus,

I've learned to trust in God.

through it all,

through it all,

I've learned to depend upon His Word.

I've been to lots of places,

I've seen a lot of faces,

there's been times I felt so all alone.

But in my lonely hours,

yes, those precious lonely hours,

Jesus lets me know that I was His own

I thank God for the mountains,

and I thank Him for the valleys,

I thank Him for the storms He brought me through.

For if I'd never had a problem,

I wouldn't know God could solve them,

I'd never know what faith in God could do

This past week was Thanksgiving and if I were to be completely honest with you, I haven't been very thankful.  It seems like everything that could go wrong has... and I have been left wondering, 

"Why me, God?"  

"Haven't I had enough?"

  "Haven't I suffered enough?"

 "Do you hear me?"

  "Do you see how tired I am?"

  "What about weakness, Do you see that God?"

  "I can't take much more."

As I drove home from church yesterday, this song was playing on my mom's CD player.  I had to pause to think... Do I thank God? for the mountains?  the valleys? the storms He brought me through?  What about the trials I am having right now?  Do I thank Him or do I shut Him out?  If I can be candid for a moment, I've shut Him out.  Since last Tuesday, I shut Him out.  I couldn't pray, praise or speak His name.  I have spent almost a week in the silence, in the dark, in the pain.  It is miserable there but after a while it is safe.  I don't have to think about the "whys" of life.  I can just simmer and be miserable.  

But as this song played and as I replayed the sermon from the service yesterday, I realized nothing is about me. Everything I have is a gift from God.  It is a blessing in disguise... sometimes so deep in disguise... but all of it: valleys, mountaintops, trials and storms are blessings.  They are gifts from God and it is what we do with these gifts that make the difference.  Each painful trial, each triumphant victory, each passing day is a gift to teach me to rely on Him and trust His word.