I told myself I would spend some time reflecting on Christmas this year, so here it is.
To be honest, I haven't been really excited about Christmas in the past six years. Christmas has mostly been an excuse to get presents and eat lots of good food. I don't have much family here to spend it with, and spending Christmas with divorced parents is odd so obviously we don't do it. Most Christmases have actually been spent on vacations, so it has mostly become a time of leisure, 'relaxation', and 'fun' (I put those adjective in quotes because it has actually been quite the opposite).
But I continue to remind myself, that it's because the Holy Spirit decided to be brought into this world through human form as Jesus that I can rest assure that death is not a scary thing and that the devil is defeated. I guess a good reminder is that I really am not afraid of death - and that is all thanks to Jesus. In my brain I know that the devil is defeated, but at times I question myself whether my soul really knows it. I was playing solitaire last night and - this is going to be one of my super weird metaphors - that this spiritual warfare is kind of like the iPod version of solitaire. Jesus has already cleared out all the decks of cards, all we have to do is help put them back in place, with guidelines already set out for us, knowing that it's already a won game.
A pastor at the church I attend also gave another metaphor - what if the dogs of the world had some kind of conflict and the only way to resolve it was to have a human turn into the form of a dog and help all the dogs? Personally, I wouldn't really do that. But God, creator of the galaxies, stars, planets, solar systems, was willing to send a Son through this human race so that we could have eternal life through and with Him.
The way that the Virgin Mary accepted God's message through Gabriel so willingly also astounds me. If it were me, I'd accept too, but after some hesitation.
I also remind myself that I've always wondered what it'd be like to live in a prophetic world when I forget that days like Christmas and Easter have followed a prophecy, and that the full story of the prophecy is still in process and that in the end we will win.
To be honest, I haven't been really excited about Christmas in the past six years. Christmas has mostly been an excuse to get presents and eat lots of good food. I don't have much family here to spend it with, and spending Christmas with divorced parents is odd so obviously we don't do it. Most Christmases have actually been spent on vacations, so it has mostly become a time of leisure, 'relaxation', and 'fun' (I put those adjective in quotes because it has actually been quite the opposite).
But I continue to remind myself, that it's because the Holy Spirit decided to be brought into this world through human form as Jesus that I can rest assure that death is not a scary thing and that the devil is defeated. I guess a good reminder is that I really am not afraid of death - and that is all thanks to Jesus. In my brain I know that the devil is defeated, but at times I question myself whether my soul really knows it. I was playing solitaire last night and - this is going to be one of my super weird metaphors - that this spiritual warfare is kind of like the iPod version of solitaire. Jesus has already cleared out all the decks of cards, all we have to do is help put them back in place, with guidelines already set out for us, knowing that it's already a won game.
A pastor at the church I attend also gave another metaphor - what if the dogs of the world had some kind of conflict and the only way to resolve it was to have a human turn into the form of a dog and help all the dogs? Personally, I wouldn't really do that. But God, creator of the galaxies, stars, planets, solar systems, was willing to send a Son through this human race so that we could have eternal life through and with Him.
The way that the Virgin Mary accepted God's message through Gabriel so willingly also astounds me. If it were me, I'd accept too, but after some hesitation.
I also remind myself that I've always wondered what it'd be like to live in a prophetic world when I forget that days like Christmas and Easter have followed a prophecy, and that the full story of the prophecy is still in process and that in the end we will win.
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