It's a New Year

Another Christmas has come and gone

Let us talk of what we’ve seen. 

The angels sang of Jesus birth

announcing peace to all the earth.

The shepherd bowed then at the sight.

They found the child that wondrous night.

He came to earth 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 

and then we pack it all away

 

The trees and lights and treasures fair, 

we put the crèche with Jesus there.

For one more year we put away the trappings of that special day.

But

If we take God from His manger bed and see the holy life He led

and watch the Son of God and see Him die upon that cursed tree.

Christmas might be just the start

of Jesus living in your heart.

This is the last poem in the book, "These My Christmas Dreams." It’s the very last page – it’s the end.  Have you come to the end of Christmas?  Should Christmas have an end?  As we put our decorations away, as you get things back to normal, try to think of what normal should really be.

Should we leave the decorations out all year?  I’m tempted to do that. 

Should we try to duplicate that Christmas feeling?  Sometimes we can have the joy of Christmas at other times of the year. 

Should Christ have a more prominent place in our day-to-day lives?  Will He?

Today I sat by the wood stove and thought about the visits with our family – We have a lot of fun with silly gifts like the kazoos we gave all the grandkids, and the package of 4 mousetraps that Ron received in his stocking.  But the best gifts were the love and acceptance from friends and family. 

But now the house was quiet and I had time to think deeply.

I thought about the gift that God has given us – all of us.  A savior was born 2000 years ago.  God’s gift of salvation came wrapped as a tiny baby.  I wondered just how I would use what I’d been given this Christmas.  What would this life of mine involve now – or better yet, who that life would involve now. 

There’s another Christmas gift that God promised us. John 10:10 says, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." 

Abundant Life - what does that gift look like?  The dictionary defines abundant as:  marked by great plenty, ample, or bounteous. 

Jesus’ Christmas gift to us is abundant Life.  Would that be “a great deal of  money, many years on earth, lots of friends, excellent eyesight, or perfect health?” 

I think we’ll find that it’s really none of those things.  

You probably know about Joni Erickson Tada, who was injured when she was 17 in a swimming accident that left her a quadriplegic for life.  She had asked Jesus how she could have a closer walk with Him and He showed her.  She surrendered her will to God, and for the past 30 years, Joni has had a world-wide ministry helping other quadriplegics, and she’s ministered to those of us with sound bodies as well.  I love listening to her sing.  I love listening to her upbeat way of looking at life.  God has blessed her ministry and her life – with abundance.

I have some friends who have lived a long life.  They are in their 90s and above.  Is that an abundant life – plenty of years?  It is a certainly abundant in time, but compared to eternity – maybe not.

What about money?  Do you think that those with a bounty of things and money automatically have an abundant life?  Some people spend way to much time thinking about how rich other folks are and envying them.  All I have to do is think about my warm bed and dry place to live and food to eat – and I definitely see abundance – but is that what Jesus meant?

Let’s look at another person – we sing the song, "Blessed Assurance" written by Fannie Crosby.  The music was written by Phoebe Knapp.  Fannie was blind and very poor.  Phoebe was rich but they were apparently good friends.

Fanny was visiting her friend Phoebe, who played a new melody she had just composed. "What do you think the tune says?" she asked.

"Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine", answered Fanny Crosby – and it was.

Phoebe’s life was abundant, not because of her wealth, but because she used her talent to minister to all of us with that beautiful music.

Fannie’s life was abundant, even though she had neither wealth nor sight.

One of the verses in this song says, “Perfect submission, perfect delight, visions of rapture now burst on my sight.” She who had no sight could yet see the visions of rapture in her imagination.  And she gave us the words.

What makes an abundant life, then? Is it Jesus himself? He came to bring us abundant life, but sometimes we think in terms of the material or the physical, but it’s our spiritual life that becomes abundant with Jesus running things.  Our spiritual life, our prayer life, our minds and hearts belong to God if we believe on Him.  They are the most important parts of living.

I pray that this year I will use well His gift of abundant life. 

Tomorrow, when I start to “undecorate” my house, I will not be putting Jesus away for another year.  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)