A Christmas Gift Never Given

I  have found myself thinking much about my late Mother in these December days.  Some of that I am certain is because my mind always thinks of family members who are deceased this time of year and the fact that her birthday is December 12.   20 years ago this month, my Mother had surgery at Duke Hospital that was the beginning of the course of events that led to her death about 9 months later.   When Christmas came around in 2000,  Mom was literally in the hospital at Alamance Regional Medical Center.   I rose early that Christmas morning and made my way to Burlington to visit her before returning home to spend Christmas Day with family.   With Mom being in the hospital that year,  we made the decision in our family to not exchange gifts until Mom was home.   I had bought a nightgown for Mom for that Christmas since she was spending most of her time in gowns those days.   I even wrapped it myself though my wrapping certainly did not measure up to the superb wrapping job that Ann and the girl always did.  When we made the decision to not exchange gifts till Mom  was home from the hospital,  I placed her gift on a shelf in one of our closets.   As the days and months passed and Mom transitioned to the hospital to a nursing home and to a rehab center, that gift stayed on that closet shelf.  Unfortunately, it was a gift that was never given and never received.

In some ways, Christmas 2020 is like that Christmas 20 years ago.   20 years ago, it was a different kind of Christmas for my family.  Christmas 2020 has been different for many families in all sorts of ways:   no Christmas parades… no children sitting on Santa’s knee… families staying away from each other  for health and safety reason instead of getting together… families struggling to pay the rent, mortgage, or pay the bills.    In these December days, Christians remember and ponder the wonder of the precious  gift that God gave to the world:   Emmanuel, God with us in the flesh in the form of the Christ child.   This is a precious gift given to one and given to all.   Yet,  a gift is not really a gift unless the gift is both given and received.    God has made the gift of  himself in Christ Jesus.  It is a gift that was wrapped not in ribbons and pretty paper, but in swaddling cloths lying in a manger.    I invite you to receive anew or for the first time the gift of Christ.  It is a gift that is sorely needed by all of us and by all the world.   Have a joy-filled week !-  Pastor Randy Wall

 PRAYER

            O God,  you are as close to us as our heartbeat and breath.   We thank you for the gift to pray and to be prayed for.   We pray for the people we know and do not know.  Remind us daily that we need you;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.    

What To Give??

            I don’t know about you, but Christmas is coming fast.  It is almost here!    There are still many people to see and things to do.  I find myself thinking about giving in these pre-Christmas days.    I enjoy buying Christmas gifts for friends and family.  While my wife, Ann, always seems to “second guess” herself on the choice of gifts for others, I usually settle on a gift in my price range fairly quickly.    

            In Matthew 2, we hear the story of the visit of the wise men to the Christ child.  With help from a bright star in the heavens and the instruction of members of King Herod’s court, they arrive to offer the Christ child their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.   Those wise men were wise not only because they searched and sought out the Christ child, but they also knew exactly what to give Him. I find myself pondering what I will give God in these days.  What do I need to give up to make room for Christ to be  more fully present in my life?   What do I need to yield to Him?     I invite you to join me in asking those questions of yourself.  The answer, I believe, can be found in what money cannot buy.   Have a joy-filled Christmas  week.-  Pastor Randy Wall

PRAYER

            O God,  thank you for the gift of Christ Jesus, God with us.  Through the power of your Spirit, grant that I may receive Him anew in these days and allow Him  to rule my heart;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.   Amen. 

Waiting For A Baby

 

In this month of December and this season of Advent, Ann and I  find ourselves in a place where we have been before:  waiting for a baby.   Decades ago, I found myself waiting for the birth of a child.   This season like many other times, my wife Ann and I find ourselves waiting for the birth of a new grandchild in a few months.  Ann and I are mightily blessed with having 7 precious grandchildren as old as 14 years old and as young as a few months old.  They are all precious and a joy, and this season we wait for our 8^th grandchild. 

I find myself wondering  things serious and things inconsequential about this child:

·         What will he or she look like?

·         What kind of world are Ann and I leaving  for all our grandchildren?

·         Will this child be a Duke fan like me or will the child be a Carolina fan like their Mom?

·         What hopes and aspirations will  this precious child have as they grow to adulthood?

In these Advent days of December, I find myself reading again and again the stories about the birth of  Jesus.   In Luke 2, we read:

²⁶ In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, ²⁷ to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”  ²⁹ Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. ³⁰ But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. ³¹ You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”  ³⁴ “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”  ³⁵ The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called^[b] the Son of God. ³⁶ Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. ³⁷ For no word from God will ever fail.”  ³⁸ “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her

There are times I feel troubled like Mary as we wait for this coming grandchild,  and there are times I feel blessed and highly favored also like Mary.    But time after time, I come back to the fact of not only do we have so much to give this coming  grandchild but that this coming  grandchild has so  much to give us just as did the Christ child who came as our Saviour long ago and still comes!  Have a joy-filled week.- Pastor Randy Wall

 

PRAYER

Mighty and merciful God, we thank you for the gift of life.  We thank you for the gift of children.  Especially in this season, we joyously yearn for the Christ that has come and is coming.  Come, Lord, Jesus, and save us from our sins;  through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Christmas Really Shows

“Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas everywhere you go; Take a look in the five and then, glistening once again with candy canes and silver lanes aglow.”    When I hear the words of that song, I always think of my mother because that was one of her favorite Christmas songs.  With the Chrismon tree we see in our church sanctuary… the Christmas tree in our homes… and the lights reflecting from homes and along streets, it is looking like Christmas.   There is a message in the sights of Christmas, and that message is Christmas shows.    As a pregnant Mary made her way to Bethlehem, Christmas was showing through the child held in her womb.   

The gospel of John, like the gospel of Mark, does not give us any details about the birth of Jesus.  The closest that John comes to telling us about the birth of Jesus is in John 1:14 when he tells us,   “14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only,^[d] who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”     In his own way, John was saying that Christmas shows in the fact that God came to us in the flesh. My hope and prayer for all of us that follow Jesus is that we will let Christmas show not just through the decorations we have in our homes on in the clothes we wear, but that we will let Christmas show by letting his love be seen in and through us.   Have a joy-filled week.-   Pastor Randy Wall

 

·Previous Book:Go to Job

·Previous Chapter : Go to Psalm 62

·Expand: show the entire chapter ofPsalm 63

·Next Chapter : Go to Psalm 64

·Next Book:Go to Proverbs

·Listen to this passage : Psalm 63

·View commentary related to this passage

PRAYER

Holy Lord,  thank you for the gift of Christ Jesus, the Word made flesh.  Help me to let Christ so fully live in my heart that he might be seen in all that I say and do;   through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.