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| Christmas 2010 in Steamboat, Colorado |
"So this is Christmas
And what have you done?
Another year over
And a new one just begun."
This is how the famous John and Yoko Lennon's 1971 anthem leads off and I must confess that nearly every time I hear this song it gives me pause. Another year over and another new one about to begin. Did I maximize the opportunities God gave me to advance His kingdom in 2011? How does one ever really answer that question affirmatively? My shortcomings haunt me. So many missed opportunities. And a few that were seized. Was it really me that seized them or that God seized them in spite of me ... in most cases, it was probably the latter. Such is life.
So much to lament ... another year over ... never to be relived. Yet God in His graciousness continues to bless me and my family. Somehow we have been given four amazing children who have never really caused us any heartache. They all love Christ and are actively involved in serving Him and advancing His kingdom ... especially my three daughters. Andrew is a light in a fairly dark place [secular high school] and so far has tread a far different path in his adolescence than I did. For that I am grateful. I still eagerly anticipate the day that an overwhelming spiritual hunger develops in his heart like it has for my girls.
Speaking of them ... we will all be together for yet another Christmas. That is a rare thing that I best not take for granted. How many more will I have? It is so easy for the togetherness to get lost in all the bustle of the holiday season and the myriad tasks that need to be done and even the multitude of events that can/should be attended [not the least of which is church] that we must actively strive to not let it be so. This I again resolve to do ... but will probably fail here too like I have so many times before. The oft-repeated truism that "Jesus is the reason for the season" begins to ring hollow when it is heard so much. I must actively seek that place where He can speak the eternal realities of Christmas into my too-often hardened heart if I don't want to miss the real glories of the season ... for me simply meditating on Christmas songs helps here greatly. Not so much the carols of old for they can too easily be mindlessly repeated but rather newer songs from artists such as Point of Grace:
Let us celebrate
As the Christmases go by
Learn to live our days
With our hearts near to the child
Ever drawn, ever close
To the only love that lasts
And though 2000 years have passed
We're not that far from Bethlehem
Where all our hope and joy began
For when our hearts still cherish him
We're not that far
We're not that far from Bethlehem
Or perhaps Michael Card:
On a day like any other
in our search to find the truth.
We turned so many musty pages
In our hope to find some clue.
Then the words leapt from the parchment
From Jacob shines a star.
That a wordless one who is the word
Will be worth the journey far.
We will find him
We will find him
We will follow his star.
We will search and we will follow
No matter how far.
In castles, through kingdoms
We know where to start
To find the king whose kingdom is the heart.
Or lastly the great Twila Paris:
And a loving thought sent a snow white lamb
To a little town known as Bethlehem.
And the little lamb thought of you and me
As He hung His gift on the Christmas tree.
It's the thought that counts when the thought is love.
It's the thought that counts when we're thinking of
All the blood that flowed in vast amounts
When thought is love, it's the thought that counts.
The key is to get away with God and reflect on His gifts to each of us. There are so many. Steady jobs in this economy; the ability to pay not only our bills but to have extra; the ability to give beyond our tithe ... to bless many missionaries, the less fortunate in our community and around the globe when tragedy strikes, to help both our church and our Christian school in ministry expansion projects; to have generally good health [despite my 'thorn in the knee'], to have legacies of faith both preceding and following us. To have the opportunities to speak into the lives of so many hurting people and to have the skills to relieve much of their physical suffering through office orthopedics and to earn the right to speak into the souls of so many in pain. For Janna to be able to both help mold the next generation into faithful disciples of Christ and to help reveal to them the marvels of His creation.
So this is Christmas ... remember to take the time this week to reflect on the amazing mystery that God was "pleased as man with men to dwell." Really!?! What incredible humility! If I were God, it would have been thanks but no thanks. Jesus was not like Caesar ... the man who would become a god, but a much greater wonder -- the one true God who became a man. The real meaning of Christmas not only comes solely to the humble, but it also humbles us. There was scarcely another baby born on the night of Jesus' birth who had lower prospects in life than He. Born as Heaven's prince into a pauper's family. Laid not in a royal crib but a feeding trough. It is here that Christianity began and this is where is always begins ... with an overwhelming sense of need and human insufficiency. Jesus is born only to those who are "poor in spirit."
Jesus' birth was not announced to the high and mighty but rather to poor, lowly shepherds who were "keeping watch over their flocks by night." The only people lower on the social pecking order in that day were lepers ... and we know Jesus sought them out as well once He began His earthly ministry. He does not come to the self sufficient and when He does, He requires that we lay that down and become as little children ... for such is His kingdom for. And that is what I/we must do not only every Christmas but really every day ... become a child that He can use us ... and that is the only way I know of to make Christmas happen every day.
Below are some scenes of what Christmas looks like at the Currieo home.
