Is Christmas over?

Another Christmas has come and gone,

let’s think of pictures seen.

Angels’ singing of Jesus' birth

announcing peace to all the earth.

The manger just outside the town

where God’s own Son was to be found.

The child who came as Mary’s son - 

the promised, long awaited one.

We hear of Jesus wondrous birth

and sing of glorious peace on earth.

We praise the baby in the hay

and pause to celebrate the day,

But soon we pack it all away.

For one more year we put away

the trappings of that special day.

With trees and lights and treasures fair,

we put the crèche with Jesus there.

Instead 

Let’s take Him from his manger bed

and watch the holy life he led.

And  

walk with the Son of God and see Him 

die upon that cursed tree.

Then

Christmas might be just the start

of Jesus living in our hearts.

Have you come to the end of Christmas?  Should Christmas have an end? 

As we’re putting our decorations away, as we clean up the house and get things back to normal, maybe we could think of what normal should really be.

Should we leave the decorations out all year?  Should we try to duplicate that Christmas feeling?  Should Christ have a more prominent place in our day-to-day lives?  Will he?

For me, this year’s Christmas celebration is over.  It’s been an unusual one, not the most festive or the most exciting, but it did center greatly on the most important happening that has ever been seen on earth – the birth of Jesus, who came to this earth to live and to die for us, and to show us the way to The Father.  And in that, I have had an awesome reason to celebrate.

I ask myself this question; has this Christmas changed my life?  Has this Christmas changed me?  Has this season of concentrating on the birth of my Savior made a difference?  Oh I certainly think so.

Tomorrow, when I start to “undecorate” the house, I will not be putting Jesus away for another year.  This year, as I looked at Christ’s birth in a different way, I found so much more about God to worship and to love.  He will not be living in a box in the attic; He will be living in my heart.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, 

but Christ lives in me. 

The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, 

who loved me and gave himself for me.

(Galatians 2:20)

Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.  For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”  
Luke 2:10-12 NKJV

Almighty power! 

Bound in tiny human flesh. 

Eternal Spirit! wrapped in time 

and fragile swaddling dress.

Beauty only dreamers dream about 

slept in a lowly stall. 

The voice that spoke the world in place, 

this night would not be heard at all. 

That dark cold manger cradled more 

than human eyes could see. 

It cradled Love, and sacrifice, and life eternally. 

It cradled Hope when hope is gone 

and cradled joy without a cost,

because the baby lying here has come to save the lost. 

He came to be our 

Light giver,

Life saver, 

Creator and King. 

He is our Shepherd, 

Our Savior, 

Our Water, 

Our Bread. 

He is LOVE gently placed in a rude manger bed, 

and He proved that our God would do just what He said. 

So, this Christmas let’s see Him, 

see just who He is -  

that babe in the manger, 

our God held in flesh.

 

Let’s see the love flowing from heaven’s great throne 

and know Jesus has come  

to make us His own.

May you be blessed as you look at the Babe in the manger who is forever our Lord.

God's Song of Forgiveness

    

Floating on the breeze, I hear 

touching, poignant, crystal clear – 
  a song of heavenly majesty
  a message sent from God to me.

The song was born, as God's heart broke 

when His creation sinned.  

He named the song forgiveness.

It would bring us back to Him.

Beating in the heart of God the Holy song began,

forgiveness,

oneness,

purity was coming back to man.

The song, expressing love divine - 
a gift for all the world,

the priceless symphony of hope,

God's holy, triumph song unfurled.

It spun through heaven on starlit beams, 

and came to rest within

the virgin Mary's loving arms

in the town of Bethlehem.

As you listen to God's song this Christmas

may you know that this is true

the Son of God came down to earth

to sing God's song for you.

That song came to earth when God’s Son was born in a stable, in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago.  It is a song of love, of triumph over sin, a song of hope for each of us.  It’s a song of forgiveness.

May you feel the love that comes from the voice and heart of God in this song.  It’s meant for each of you this Christmas.

Love, Diane

Gruchow, D.M.

These my Christmas Dreams

Xulon Press, 2008

It Happened in the Garden

 Dear Friends,

It's the time of the year when we all begin thinking about the celebration of the birth of Jesus.  As is usual for me, I'm writing  about the reason we celebrate.  Would you journey through those thoughts with me?

The Wall
and the Promise

God walked with a man and a woman in a beautiful garden.  He knew them, because He had created them.  He knew their strengths and limitations and they knew Him.  They saw Him, felt His presence, and talked with Him. They were His children. They were held in the arms of their Father.  They were family.

But as time went on, they chose not to follow His direction, and they chose to listen to another voice.

That changed everything.  With that choice they built a wall that would stand between them and home – between man and woman and their Maker.  God wouldn’t live with that wall.  It wasn’t His wall. He told His children they were to leave the freedom of the garden.  He would no longer be right there in their sight because of the wall they had built. 
 
But He also promised that someday, when “The fullness of time” had come, He would send a someone to carry that wall away.  That "someone" would be the Son of God.  And of His own free will, in His humanity, He would be the perfect one to destroy the wall.

The Son of God would walk with mankind.  He would feel their humanness and would know of their desire to live within the wall.

The Son would live as a man, but only as God had originally planned for mankind to live.  He would live as a clear unblemished, see-through man, and He would remind them of the beauty they had shut out with the wall.  And through Him  they would then see their Father, once again.

And it happened!  When the fullness of time had come – it happened.  

But when the fullness of the time had come, 

God sent forth His Son, 

born of a woman, born under the law, 

to redeem those who were under the law, 

that we might receive the adoption as sons.
Galatians 4:4  (NKJV)  

God sent His own Son to tear down that wall. The Son pulled the wall down on himself - the wall that was made of the bricks of sin and self that we humans want to love, or use, or keep.  The Son chose to take that wall on his own shoulders, and it killed Him.

The sin that men love killed the Son - the perfect One. He was the only one who could destroy the wall.  He gave His life to destroy the wall.  

But that was not the end.  The Son rose from the grave.  He not only overcame the wall of sin, but He overcame death - the horrible result of man walking away from God’s presence.

No longer does the wall need to separate men from God.  Because of what our promised Savior did, we can come back home to our Father.  We can walk with Him in the garden again. 
 
We can!  If only we will look up and reach toward His welcoming arms.

We can!  If we but trust in the name of Jesus, The Christ, The Son of God.

Love, Diane