Thought So!

O.K. But Just One More Piece...

Who eats Christmas cookies before 10:00 a.m.?

Who breaks and enters a gingerbread house before having coffee?

Who rummages through the box of chocolates for the last caramel before getting the daily paper?

Who is sick and tired of goodies, but eats them because they are there?

Now, read this:

Reasons to finish Christmas treats before tree is disassembled:

1.  The faster you finish the sweets, the less clutter on counters or in cupboards.

2.  You don’t want them to be a temptation to your family.

3.  Freezing leftover treats simply takes away space needed for more healthy foods like peas and other leftovers that no one is ever going to eat. 

4.  Freezing leftover treats is hazardous and may result in an expensive trip to the dentist.

5.  If they are shoved to the back of your fridge, they will mold with the broccoli casserole, and you will have guilt on your hands.

6.  How would you feel if the treat-giver asked, “So, have you finished the cookies (fudge, box of chocolates, etc.) I gave you?” and you have to tell them the truth (more guilt).

7.  If there aren’t enough to divide equally between family members, there will be fighting.  Who needs that at Christmas?  Quickly eat them yourself.

8.  If you don’t eat them, you have to put them out for visiting guests, and they will eat them and put on the calories (more guilt).

9.  Some people didn’t get treats this Christmas.  Enjoy yours (guilt absolved).

(I’m going to close my eyes and count to 3.  When I open them, I want those treats gone.  1….2….)

Reasons to delight in the Lord’s goodness:

1.  He has blessed us with it for eternity.

2.  It never becomes onerous to us, unlike our temporal sugar/shortening creation.

3.  There is no greed and no time-line to finish them.

4.  Once we become His child, and “taste the good word of God” (Heb.6:5), its sweetness stays with us (with no sugary after-taste). 

5.  The more we “eat” of His Word, the more our appetite for it develops.

6. The more our appetite develops, the more we want (no gluttony, though!). 

7.  It’s pleasing to our soul, and we relish the Truth (no “Why did I eat that?” feeling). 

8.  Though we may taste His promises now, we know it is just a “foretaste of glory divine” (guilt-free longing for heaven!). 

9.  His goodness can be enjoyed any time, anywhere.

10.  Only we as Christians have the thrill of tasting and seeing that the Lord is good, and then sharing that thrill with others.

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How Silently…

Sometimes I wonder if we view the Christmas story as a play first, and as an event in Scripture, second.  After all, how many times have you seen or been involved in one?  It’s difficult to read Luke 2 without memories of someone scrambling for props, drilling lines (“Louder—we can’t hear you in the back!), or getting kids to stand up-sit down-walk here-stop there.  Can you envision it without its human hubbub?

How silently, how silently, The wondrous gift is given;

So God imparts to human hearts The blessings of His heaven.

No ear may hear His coming, But in this world of sin,

Where meek souls will receive Him still, The dear Christ enters in.

Often, though, we have to work to find a quiet time at Christmas (if you’re sitting down, you must either be sick or have forgotten to do something).  But at the nativity, there were no caroling CD players near the manger.  Mary wasn’t worried about tripping over extension cords.  Joseph wasn’t scrambling to set up chairs or serve punch to those who arrived early.  They had no program agenda (“OK, Mary, you have 5 min. to have this baby before the shepherds arrive!”).  Just a worried husband, and a weary, uncomfortable wife, wanting a place where they could stop moving.

Silence—what better way to hear the Lord’s still, small voice.

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What’s on Your Mind?

Plenty, you say.  What isn’t on my mind at this time of year:  marathon mall trips (making you wish volunteers were standing on the sidelines holding out little paper cups of coffee which you would grab, guzzle, and toss away as you jogged by)… planning a meal for 20… decorating the bathroom for Christmas (a lady in front of me at a check-out was buying stuff for that very thing)?

Mary had none of that to think about, yet her mind and heart were full of experiences unknown to us.  Talk about being overwhelmed!  Though, like any mother, I imagine her rummaging through the treasure box in her heart, choosing a thought, a remembered word or scene, turning it over, revolving it, like holding a jewel to the light.  And what of her Son’s future—what did she piece together from all that she had seen and heard?  Whatever she felt, she put all those things back into her full heart and kept them.

“But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.”  Luke 2:19 

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You’re Useless!

You needed to hear that today, right?   O.K., before you click me into cyberspace, listen to what Heman the Ezrahite has to say in Psalm 88.  Who-man?  So he doesn’t immediately come to mind as one of the Most Talked About People in the Old Testament.  A wise man, he was chosen and designated by name to give thanks to the Lord when David brought the Ark to Jerusalem, and to minister in music with family members in the house of God.  He also wrote probably the saddest psalm in the Psalter, and he felt… useless.

He was an accomplished musician, he was chosen by King David to pray and perform, his family helped him in this ministry, and in wisdom, he was surpassed only by Solomon.  Not really my idea of a useless person!  So, what happened by the time he got to Psalm 88?  We don’t know.  But, we do know that, surrounded by trouble and in a life-and-death situation, he prayed.  Though darkness was his closest friend, he prayed.  Though close to death as a young person, he prayed.

Heman’s grasping for hope shows through in his reasoning, that, if a Christian’s desire while on earth is to praise the Lord, then how could a dead person praise God from the grave (vs.10,11)?  As long as he was alive, he was not useless to the Lord.

Are we ever without hope?  Not if we hope in the Lord (Psalm 42:5).  Then we are never useless to Him.

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