Dear Friends, I’m sharing a message I wrote seven years ago about the meaning of Christmas. I hope you’ll take the time to soak in the true reason we celebrate on December 25th. My hope is this message will shine a ray of meaning into your days as you prepare for celebrations to come with friends and family. Love, Jen

“This is the Amazing Race!” I kept calling to the Cowboy as we panted through the last few days to Christmas.  Ribbons and bows, toys and rows, wish lists and dreams and Santa big schemes … we did it all.

Ready or not, Christmas came. We sprinted to the finish, napped, and woke to the wonder of how God always comes through for us.

It’s a wonder to me how blessings rise from the ashes of what once was, how beauty comes in so many forms. Laughter, surprise, love unadulterated, achy tired and satisfied, grateful and sure of one thing, One: that He is faithful. Faithful to allow pain to result in praise, hard times to rise to hallelujahs, and brokenness to become belonging.

In Him, insecurity becomes security, being unsure leads to So Sure.

Yet everybody longs. Daily, we seek bread, wine, oil, salt, water … nourishment to the soul. What will fill us? We ask. We look to see: where can we escape? Hide. Run. Be still. Hear. We seek, find. We drink, fill. Then empty. All is temporary – Christmas comes to us, Christmas goes. And we long for more. Whether it be more things or less, more space or less, more community or less, we long.

Christmas waits for no man.

It comes, ready or not, and so will his returning. A few days after Christmas we watched Left Behind, a film that prompted questions like, “Am I really a believer?” “What if God doesn’t think so?” and “What’s pre-trib? Post?” Good discussions fireside. While the flames warmed my back I listened to the children’s grandmother explain that faith in Jesus Christ is all that is needed to walk into an eternity of rest. The children are sponges — they soak in, they accept, they taste truth and eat.

Not as easy for all in the room, the thought of the rapture, the tribulation, the return of Christ.

There’s this parable where Jesus talks about keeping your candle burning – how there are five women who are wise, five who are foolish. The wise store extra oil so their wick is lit when the bridegroom appears, but the foolish store no oil. The bridegroom is a long time in coming and they all fall asleep waiting for him. When he arrives in the middle of the night with not a hint of warning, the ones who stored oil in preparation for his coming trim their lamps, but the foolish go running back to be ready. The wise enter into the presence of the bridegroom, but when the foolish five return, the door is shut.

They knock, and when he answers, he says what none of us want to hear: “I don’t know you.”

Christmas waits for no man.

If you’re not sure about Left Behind or the rapture or the fate of those who deny him, read Psalm 37. You will find that all He asks is simple trust.

“Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun. Those who are evil will be destroyed, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.” (Ps 37:3,4,6,9).

As you enter a new year, ask yourself, in whom do I trust? Do I trust in my own wisdom, in the way I would have written the Book? Am I relying on myself for a secure future, or am I resting in the goodness of God?

Let’s store oil this year. Let’s fill these lamps of ours with His richness — the oil that will keep our lamps lit. Everything else fades. All else leaves us wanting, longing, searching for a way to fill this aching emptiness. But He will fill us forever.

Trust in Him this year. Delight yourself in Him. And be prepared for Christmas to come any time, even in the middle of the night. For He is coming soon – and I know you want to hear His voice say, “Yes, come in, I know you. I’m glad you were ready for my return.”

In gladness,

Jen