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I can still remember as a child of the
depression using my imagination to turn cardboard boxes into ships at sea. Back in the middle of November my wife and I
sailed for five days on a luxurious ocean liner. Was it better than the cardboard box of my
youth? Certainly. Would I have preferred spending 5 days in a
cardboard box rather than on a Caribbean Cruise?
Hardly.
But if I could never take a cruise again
and not being able to ruined the rest of my remaining days, somehow I think I
would be in trouble. I guess what I am
saying, and maybe not terribly well, is that I hope we are able to take another cruise, and if we do, I hope I do so
with overwhelming thanksgiving. That nothing that I can buy becomes
more important than what God has freely given me.
Finding
and practicing the Christmas spirit is not cutting-edge-technology, but it is
clear what Christ would have us do if we would be content. Get our priorities straight. Have an open account with all the
immeasurable treasures of heaven available.
Recognize the difference between that which is eternal and that which,
like my cardboard ship of 70 years ago, is very finite.
When I first came out of Seminary, I held
worship services at one small town church and three country churches and each
one had so much of community in it.
It
wasn’t a separate activity, religion separated from the secular. There was an ongoing relationship between the
church on the hill and the hardware store on the corner. It was a simpler time. And,
yes, as we of older years are prone to say, in many ways a better time. Am I in favor of a theocracy? Certainly not. Would I like for the religious community to
spill over into how we treat each other in the market place? Oh, yes!
And
also into the political corridors so there is less corruption. And into the homes so there is more of God
and less of a placid agnosticism?
If we look back at our own personal lives,
perhaps we see how we may have over-reacted to something someone did or left
undone. People get mad and stay mad for
too long a time over such stupid little things as, “He or she didn’t answer my
email.” Jesus said, “Love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greater
commandment. And the second is like unto
it; love your neighbor as yourself
We are
each an exceptional person; God’s person, created in some miracle-time of
heavenly choice, all the destiny of days spread out behind and before us. And if the Christian spirit in us is what it
should be, then our outward actions will show it. It is as simple as that. Each of us placing the gift of our
unquenchable, no-strings-attached love for God and each other front and
centermost and tied with a ribbon of commitment.
When God had Jesus travel from
the Gates of Heaven to an earthly home in Bethlehem, He opened up a direct line
of communication in a way He never had before.
Born in a lowly barn yet spelling out His majesty from the very
beginning. Being perfect and perfectly
God all at the same time. What a gift.
A
nursery visit of expanded proportions, that was what it really was. And then, in three short decades against a
backdrop of eternity, would come a cross, a resurrection, a salvation offer and
a King of Kings. A Savior King.
Helen Keller was deaf, dumb and
blind and in her book LIGHT IN MY DARKNESS she wrote, “For nearly six year I
had no concepts whatever of nature or mind or death or God. I literally thought with my body. Without a single exception, my memories of
that time are tactile. I know I was
impelled like an animal to seek food and warmth. I remember crying, but not the grief that
caused the tears; I kicked and because I recall it physically I know I was
angry….but there is not one spark of emotion or rational thought in these
distinct yet corporeal memories.
I was
like an unconscious clod of earth. There
was nothing in me except the instinct to eat and drink and sleep. My days were a blank without past, present or
future, without hope or anticipation, without interest or joy.”
And
then came Ann Sullivan. And the messages she laid out across Heln's
palm. And with this new found intellect came a hungering in her soul
for an improvement of the intellect of her soul.
She
began to read the Bible and talk with ministers and pray, oh how she
prayed. And something deeper than she could ever imagine began to stir
within her. Still deaf and mute and
blind, but now for the first time she could really see. A complete person with absolutely no
blindness in her spirit.
“I am the light of the world,” said Christ and who better to
understand what he meant than Helen Keller.
God has offered
us a challenge for each of us be a light unto the world and not a
darkness. Bringing kindness and patience
to the marketplace and being a blessing to our families because we are giving
them the best of ourselves. But
unfortunately, there will be family members and friends who will not be a
Christian spirit. Rather they will be
a curse for how they act.
+++++++++++++
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