For thought and meditation

[rl69]

Therefore I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; My God will hear me.—Micah 7:7 (http://harvest.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4f108f827aed8d503b5fca9fa&id=60e940c221&e=3dd732485b)She was frantically trying to get everything done.

She had her small child with her, but for a moment, she lost sight of him. In sheer panic, she started retracing her steps and found him with his nose pressed against the glass of a store display, looking at a manger scene.

The boy said, "Mommy, Mommy! Look! It is Jesus in the hay!"

"Let's go," she said, as she took him by the hand and led him away. "We don't have time for that."

Exactly. That is the whole problem with this time of year that we call Christmas. We can be so busy celebrating Christmas that we forget all about Christ. In a sense, we can actually lose God in the midst of it all. We can very easily lose God in the so-called celebration of Jesus.

For many, the Christmas story is the one about Scrooge being visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past, or maybe Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, or Frosty the Snowman or Santa Claus.

But technically, can we lose God? No, we really can't. You can't lose someone if you know where they are. If you know where they are, then they are not lost. But you can lose sight of someone. And some have lost sight of the Lord in their lives, especially at this time of the year.

Maybe you've had the experience of talking with someone who was checking their texts or updating their social media as you're trying to tell them something important.

God never does that. God is never disinterested. God is never distracted. And even if we forget about Him, He never forgets about us. Christmas is not about buying presents; it is about His presence in our lives.

[USMC87]

Amen, Excellent lesson!

[Blackwater]

What a great insight into the way so many have come to regard Christmas. Modern life has most of us always "in a hurry." But when we're in SO much of a hurry that we don't or won't stop and think when something really crucial is presented to us, we never can or will benefit from that kind of "being in a hurry." And all we'll have when it's all over will inevitably be emptiness and tiredness from all the hustle and bustle.

And it may seem contradictory, but the less harried we go, and the more thoughtful, the more we actually get done.

I have a knifemaker/teacher friend in the Ga. mtns., and watching him work is a real lesson in life. I've had occasion to watch him at his knifemaking work, and he seems like he's working slow as molasses - never "in a hurry," every motion deliberate and devoid of extraneous or unproductive movement. He just keeps at it slowly, precisely and steadily. And if you turn your back for a minute, and then look back, you're astounded at what all he's gotten done!

Accuracy and precision also eliminates, as much as is humanly possible, waste, which seems to be rather expected these days as a "cost of doing business." It's our attitudes, more than any other single human trait, that determines what and how much and what quality of the things we get in this life. We so often seek out the things we can't keep, and neglect the things we can't lose. And all we really have to do is stop and think for just a brief moment, and that can be the real beginning of a real and substantial change in our attitudes, and from there, the whole world can be at our fingertips, if we just let it be. And Heaven will be assured when this life is over.

And all we really have to do is simply let ourselves see, and acknowledge, that there's a real purpose in everything, and what could nurture our faith more? And what could nurture our attitudes of cynicism and pessimism more than always being "in a hurry" to do all the things others, particularly those in advertising and merchandising, WANT us to want to do?

Christmas is about a little child, born in a manger, who would pay the price for all mankind's sins, and thus, redeem us from our very natures. IF we'll just let Him do that. What else could we be so reverent about?