May I always make room for You, O Lord – In every area of my life! Consume me with Your love, teach me humility, and let me serve You, all the days of my life!
Focus of the Month: Christmas Memories… The memory of the righteous is a blessing.
I love the Christmas season. It is absolutely my favorite time of year. The smell of cookies baking, decorating my home, choosing just the right gifts (or maybe something close), the gathering of friends and family and celebrating the birth of Jesus. I truly love it all!
The TRUEST meaning of Christmas -the birth of my Savior- settled in my heart and soul more so in my adult years than my childhood. It wasn’t that I didn’t know, or hadn’t heard the Christmas story as a child. I had heard it year after year. I went to church and saw the baby Jesus in the stable. However, I began to learn, as I had children of my own, that Christmas wasn’t Christmas at all without HIM. With all the busyness that consumes us at the holidays, we can lose sight of the truest part of it. And just like the Innkeepers in Bethlehem we can give a message, of No Vacancy to Jesus all over again.
“And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them. That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:6-12)
One of my very favorite Christmas gifts is a starter set of my nativity scene – a likeness of the place Jesus was born. My Auntie chose to gift me the pieces representing Joseph, Mary, baby Jesus, the three wise men and some of the barn animals. Over the next several years my daughters and I would venture out to the Christian store in our town to purchase a new addition for this scene. We bundled up and headed out in the hopes of finding a treasure.
I loved watching my girls; so young and so excited to pick the perfect piece. Choosing carefully a figure that meant something to them. Every piece has a story, and every story points ultimately to the Lord Jesus. As we collected the various people, animals and structures that may have been present at the time of Jesus’s birth, I hoped my daughters would feel the importance of this place that sheltered the New Born King.
This completely lowly, yet beautiful, place for a King to be born.
Do we relish this today? Do we fully comprehend the significance of this place that our Savior came into the world? He is fully God and fully man, yet born humbly in a stable and without a crown on His precious head. Wow.
My hope for us this season is that we would have a sign in our front window with flashing lights that says, “VACANCY”!! Let us make room for Him in our homes, in our hearts and in our lives. He is our One True Hope.
He came to earth to save us…there will be no greater gift under your tree.
“Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare Him room, and Heaven and nature sing”
Holding Fast to Hope,
Jen
Scripture References: Luke 2:6-12
