November through January is a strange and wonderful time each year in my family. Strange, because it's a time of celebration from one holiday to the next, but it's also a time of remembrance of many family members that we have lost during these three months in years past. Celebration mingled with sadness. We celebrate because we know our family members are in Heaven with Jesus, but we are sad because we miss them. We miss being able to pick up the phone and talk to them, or sit down and have tea with them. It's a funny thing, this life.
My Grandma Peggy passed away just after New Year's, almost four years ago. Shortly after she died, my Mom called and told me that she had left my sisters and I some money. I was very surprised! I had no idea that for years, my Grandma had been saving money in a shoebox under her bed, with us in mind, to bless us after she was gone from this life. What an amazing woman she was. She was a prayer warrior, she was thoughtful, she would "tell you like it is" and then hug your guts out! Haha! She was very special. She said to tell us that we could do whatever we wanted to do with our money, with one rule. We had to use the money for ourselves. Not our husbands, not our kids, but just for us. My Grandma knew my sisters and I would have loved to bless our families, but she really wanted it to be for us alone. So, I did what she said and I had corrective eye surgery. I had worn glasses or contacts since third grade and had always longed for the day when I wouldn't have to anymore. I had enough money and some left over from what she gave me. And now, every morning I wake up and I can see the moment I open my eyes, I think of my Grandma. I remember her love and generosity. I remember what she must have sacrificed with what little income she had to save that money for my sisters and I. I guess that's what prompted me to write what I'm about to write...
This morning, I was reading in John. I started in Chapter 15, and read through Jesus' death and resurrection, up to the end of John, in Chapter 21. It's been a while since I've read these scriptures. It always amazes me how scripture that has become so familiar can be seemingly transformed when you go back and read it again. New revelation can be given to you when you read familiar passages in the Bible. I think that's awesome. What stood out to me today was Jesus' love and compassion for his disciples. But, not just for them, for us. In John 17:20-26, Jesus prays for US!
"20 “My prayer is not for them alone (meaning, the disciples). I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
Jesus had you and me in mind when he was praying to His Father, just hours before he was to be arrested and then killed. Nailed to a tree for you and I so that we could one day be joined with him in Heaven. Some of you may be thinking, what does this have to do with Christmas? This is more of what you hear at Easter. Well, without Christmas, what we celebrate at Easter wouldn't exist. After Jesus had finished speaking with his disciples, he prayed to God, His Father.
"After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began." - John 17:1-5
Jesus took it back to the very beginning, before the world began. God sent Jesus, knowing what the final outcome would be, as a gift to us. He sent Jesus because he loves us so much. He wanted us to be able to be joined with him for all eternity; free from pain, free from suffering, free from sadness, free from grief. He knew that the only way we would be able to enter into Heaven, not guilty, was to send Jesus to die for us. To pay the ultimate price for our sins, so that we could be united with our Heavenly Father. No shame, no sin, bought and paid for with the blood of Jesus.
Most of you know the very familiar scripture, John 3:16. I like the Amplified Bible for this scripture. "For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life."
In John 17:3, Jesus describes eternal life as knowing God, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, who God sent. Do you know the only true God? Do you know Jesus? What is Christmas to you?
I love Christmas trees, and Santa, and Christmas lights, and presents, and dinners with loved ones. I love everything about the "world's view" of Christmas just as much as anyone. But, what I love most about Christmas is that it's a reminder, a remembrance of the greatest sacrifice that anyone has ever made, or ever will make for me. It fills my heart with joy and a peaceful security knowing that God was thinking of me, before the world ever began. He knew that he was going to send his Son, Jesus, to be born in a stable, and live as a human being and walk our earth as we do, even though in the end he would see his son suffer a cruel death. And Jesus was thinking of me, before he went to his death. And he was thinking of you.
Just as my Grandma was thinking of her family, and how she could bless them after she was gone. She wanted us to remember her love for us. I remember her love like a warm blanket over my shoulders. I remember her sacrifice every time I open my eyes to see. Jesus wants us to not only remember his sacrifice, but to know his love on a daily basis, in a real and tangible way. He left us his Holy Spirit to guide us and to comfort us in this life until he returns one day to take us to live with him forever. He left us His Word, his marvelous Word to also guide us and give us insight into who He is and who we are in Him.
If you feel lonely this Christmas, read John 15. Jesus is speaking to his disciples, but his words are also for us. If you have a relationship with Jesus, then yo are also his disciple. Jesus is talking to them about staying connected to him. He tells them that he wants for their joy to be full and complete, and he tells them how that can be possible. If you want joy, then you must be connected daily to Jesus. His joy is our strength. The true joy of Christmas can be yours, if you choose to have a relationship with Jesus. The Christmas story is true. It's real. There is a Savior who loves you, who has chosen you, and you are on His mind...every day.
