With less than 24 hours left in the year 2015, many find
themselves in a situation similar to the one they were in only days ago. Just as there was scrambling at the eleventh hour
prior to Christmas to make last minute purchases, there is now scrambling to
make last minute New Year’s Eve plans and New Year’s Resolutions. But if you’re like me, and already have your
plans and resolutions set, you may find yourself in the place where I am. That place not being physical, but
figurative, in reviewing the year that has just passed. While I found 2015 to be a great year,
leaving me much to be thankful for, I’m not currently looking that far back in
my rearview mirror. As I look around my
city, I see tons of Christmas lights and decorations that point toward the
holiday that just passed. That, in
addition to co-workers I’ve recently run into asking me, “How was your
Christmas?” prompted me to think a bit deeper than the generic responses we
typically give to that question. I asked
myself in a still moment, “How was my
Christmas, and what was special about it?”
It didn’t take me long to recall several great points about this recent
Christmas. I’ll give you three of them
that led me to believe that I had a “Triple G” rated Christmas. That is, a Christmas highlighted by Giving,
Grafting, and a Guarantee.
GIVING
I have seven members in my immediate family. I typically spend virtually all of my
Christmas money on my wife and five children.
However, this year, God’s providence allowed me to do some extra
spending and to violate agreements that I have had with some loved ones by
buying Christmas gifts for a good number of family members outside my
home. I can honestly say that I loved
every minute of buying gifts for people that I knew would be completely
unsuspecting of me getting them something!
As I purchased each gift I became increasingly eager to give the gifts
to the corresponding people. I must say,
it made me look forward to Christmas Day in a way that I haven’t in a
while. As a child, I was excited about getting. But this year, I was SO excited about
giving! I knew I’d be receiving some
things here and there, but I wasn’t worried about that at all. All I wanted to do was give my loved ones
their gifts! The thought of being able
to hand them their gifts that day pushed me out of bed early. I remember my wife asking me to calm down a
bit as I woke her up before the kids did, fully ready to get the day
rolling! As I remembered how I felt, I
thought to myself, “Something is really
right about that feeling because God is an eager gift-giver!” So eager in fact, that the Lord Jesus told
His Disciples, “You may ask anything in My Name, & I will do it.” (John 14:14) The Apostle James understood this so much
that he tells us in James 4:4 that
we “have not because we don’t ask God.”
Of course the Lord does not mean that we can literally have
anything we ask for in His Name. But the
hyperbole in His speech illustrates His utter-delight and readiness to grant us
those things that we ask for that are in His Will! This zeal for giving changed the way
Christmas felt for me this year. And I
decided that I’m going to incorporate it whenever possible in every Christmas
after this one that the Lord allows me to see.
GRAFTING
After years of bouncing from house to house with our
children on holidays, my wife and I decided on a plan to alternate. Each year, we do Thanksgiving with either my
family or hers, and then on Christmas, we alternate. This year, we spent Christmas with my wife’s
family. For many, spending holidays with
in-laws in nothing to smile about. But
as I reflect on this recent Christmas, I can’t help but to be overwhelmed by
the blessing God has given me in my in-laws.
After nearly eleven years of marriage, I can truly say that my wife’s
family is my family! These people who I
didn’t grow up with, haven’t known all my life, and at one point was totally
apprehensive about, are now my family! I
love spending time with them on holidays!
If my wife wasn’t around, I still would’ve felt right at home! As I realized this, I said to myself, “I’m no longer a foreigner to them. I’m family!
I’m grafted in!” It made me
think of how the atoning work of Jesus has grafted in Gentile believers into
the Household of Faith with Believing Jews (Romans
11:11-21). Those who were not apart
of God’s Covenant people, Israel, have now been given access to the forgiveness
of sins, right relationship with God, and all the privileges of being God’s
children through faith in Jesus! I find it amazing how God has illustrated this
spiritual truth in my marriage to my wife.
My becoming one with my wife has not only lawfully made me a member of
her family, but RELATIONSHIP has granted me an active, involved, desired,
willful, fulfilling role in a new family.
A work of God alone!
GUARANTEE
As early as Christmas Night, when all is quiet, and all the
wrapping paper is in the trash, a feeling of disappointment settles upon the
hearts of many. This disappoint for some
is from the fact that Christmas can’t be everyday. And it will now be another 12 months until we
get back to this time of year. For
others, they see all of the build-up of Christmas as a let-down. The brevity of the day, absent family
members, or a missing gift here or there are enough to sour the idea of
Christmas being worthy of all the hype surrounding it. I could remember feeling disappointment creep
in as Christmas came to a close a week ago. But I didn’t shake this feeling off. I embraced it. I embraced the disappointment because it
brought me so much joy! Why? I remembered that this fallen world that we
live in is full of disappointments and let-downs. But God has skillfully used these disappoints
to create a longing in the hearts of His children. This longing is for our true home. A dwelling not made by human hands. A place where we will live with our God! A place where there will be no crying, death,
mourning, or pain. For the former order
of things will have passed away, and our Lord will make all things new! (Rev 21:3-4). Many things in this world don’t live up to
the hype. But earth can’t manufacture
hype that will do justice to the glory that God has in store for His children
at the consummation of all things. The
Bible tells us that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be
compared to what God has in store for those who love Him (I Cor 2:9, Rom 8:18)! We live now in a place where expectations are
frequently not met. God has told His
children that disappointment will be impossible in His presence, because we
can’t conceive expectation high enough to compare with what will be revealed on
that Great Day. And we won’t have to
worry about brevity! This glory will be
eternal! And our dwelling with God will
be everlasting (II Cor 4:17, I Thes 4:17)! The joy of the Christmas
season is but a small sample-size of the joy we will have in the presence of
God. And that season of joy will not
pass. It will last forever!
I thought about how sure I am of all this. As I am banking my eternity on all that I
have just written. I realized that which
makes me sure is the Guarantee that Jesus promised to send into the world, His
precious Holy Spirit (John 14:26, 16:7). Jesus promised that He would come back to
take His bride to be with Him where He is (John
14:3). And He has given us the Holy
Spirit as a foretaste of what is to come, and as the Guarantee that He will
come back for us (II Cor 1:22, Eph 1:14). As surely as snow and bright
decorations signal to many that Christmas is coming, the work of the Holy
Spirit signals to Believers that Jesus is coming. As He sanctifies and prepares us for the
Bridegroom (I Pet 1:2), He helps us
to fall out of love with the World, and to fall in love with God. He makes the world more and more foreign to
us as our Heavenly citizenship blossoms in our hearts (Col 1:13, II Pet 1:19). He makes us to love righteousness, and to
long to be with the Righteous One. And
one day, every true Believer will be.
This is a joy and expectation that can carry me not only until next
Christmas, but for all of life. For the
One who promised is Faithful (Heb 10:23).
Looking back over these three aspects of my recent holiday
experience helped me to realize just how great a Christmas I truly had. And as much as I anticipate an even better
Christmas in 2016, I don’t look forward to it nearly as much as I look forward
to the consummation of all things, when Jesus, the reason for the season, makes
His 2nd coming. He is coming
quickly (Rev 22:7, 12)!
