Merry Christmas!

With all that is going on in the world this year, I love hearing "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Holidays". Our world is hurting and the only thing that will heal hearts is Jesus. Like Cody said, this morning, Christ-mas. Mas as in the spanish word for more. I liked that!!

I love the messages of Christmas. Of course, I believe that message is a daily message, but I'm glad it is brought to the attention of the whole world at one time of the year. Oh sure, there is lots of commercialism, but I can look past that. It is what we make it!

In studying Luke 1 for our Bible study this morning, my heart was touched by a few messages. Here is one of them...The angel, Gabriel came to Mary and told her she would be giving birth to Jesus. He said "You have found favor with the Lord" and "Do not be afraid". She was a young, unknown person from an obscure village. Her faith made her say, "Okay, I'm your servant", even though she had no way of knowing who exactly Jesus was and how his life would go. But the world needed a savior, including Mary, and she was used by God to get him here.

One thing I'll interject here..Gabriel was the messenger. In a way, so was Mary because she delivered the Savior. We've all had angels in our lives who bring us messages. We love them for their importance to our lives. Our growth, our revelations, our increased faith. BUT..do we love the messenger more than the message? I hope it is the message I love more then the messenger.

Okay..back to the story. So, I was thinking that each of us are like Mary. God sends a messenger to our hearts and says he wants Jesus to live in our heart. We accept that and we are filled with a growing Jesus in our hearts. We have no idea what following the Lord may mean, but the same words of comfort stretch across the generations.."Do not be afraid". God doesn't choose to love us or need us because of our strength or what we can do for Him. What he needs from us is the opposite: our submission. When I was younger, I was confused by so many of the mysteries of the Bible, of God, of all of it. The Bible was a big confusing book that intimidated me. The concept of God, the scriptures and all of it intimidated me. I couldn't get my brain around it. I had to understand the very simple truths before I could begin to let them grow into a bigger understanding. I have much to learn and understand, but God is faithful to give me just what I need to know for the time being. Mary didn't give birth the day she learned she was going to. It was a growing process.

Jesus is many things to me, depending on the analogy out of the Bible. One I love is that He is my shepard. In Hebrews 4 it says that Jesus, the good shepard will never leave us. I have reflected on that quite a bit in tough times. He has been true to that. When I've felt very alone, He has been there. When no one else was there, no one to turn to, I found the Lord in prayer, and He was faithful to me. I love the thought that the shepard won't sleep if one sheep is missing. I'm glad He cares about where I am and about my safety.

Finally, we hear about "Peace on Earth". Tonight, at the Christmas program, my heart was touched by the message that peace on earth is having peace in your heart. It came right back to way Cody said this morning...Mas Christ. So, Merry Christmas! May you find peace in YOUR heart this season and may Christmas be a daily celebration of the greatest gift ever.