My friend Dave Runyon sends out the best Christmas card ever year. I always look forward to seeing what he and his family will do next! This year’s card is one of the best. Here are a couple of thoughts from Pastor Steve Cordle on where we can find peace this Christmas.
Christmas has a way of amplifying the pain of life’s imperfections.
If death or divorce taken someone who was celebrating with us last year, it hurts even more than other days. If our health is limiting us, or key relationships are strained or our job threatened, it seems it seems to cut a little deeper at Christmas.
Christmas is supposed to be Merry!
But if we look back at the first Christmas, you see that things did not go all that well for Mary and Joseph either. It came complete with:
Family Drama: Mary had been widely accused of sleeping around and Joseph planning on breaking off their engagement.
It had the Unpleasant Travel Experience: try riding a donkey for more than 80 miles when 9 months pregnant.
There was the Accommodation Hassle: no room at inn, have to sleep in a barn… which is worse than with your cousins.
There was the pain of childbirth and then unexpected company dropping in as shepherds showed up wanting to see the baby.
I’m just saying that circumstances were not perfect for the main players on that first Christmas.
I hope you get just what you want for Christmas this year, and everything turns out like you want it to – that would be great!
But if it doesn’t, don’t worry, you haven’t missed Christmas’ best.
Because the best part of Christmas is not what is happening in our circumstances, but who has come to be with us.
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