How do you have Christmas...and then GO??
That was the question that kept running through both of our minds the two weeks that we were home between our training and our leaving. How do we leave these people that we love so dearly? How do we leave knowing that it will be quite awhile before we spend this time with them again? How do we leave after all of this already-emotionally-charged-because-of-the-holidays concentrated family time? How do we say good-bye at this time of year? Maybe we should have done this at a "better" time...
And then it was Christmas.
And we remembered WHAT CHRISTMAS IS ALL ABOUT...
About how He came as a baby, but didn't stay that way. About how the King of Heaven left His throne to become one of us, for a purpose. About how He came to seek and to save. About forgiveness of sin. About hope of Heaven. Of abundant life now.
We REMEMBERED THE CROSS.
We remembered our sin. We remembered our debt - a debt we could not pay. A debt He paid, but did not owe. We remembered how He much He loves us.
We remembered how much He loves the whole world.
We remembered that all people need to know the "good tidings of great joy...a SAVIOR which is Christ the Lord..." that the angels proclaimed to the shepherds on that night so long ago.
We had Christmas and remembered we MUST go.
And so we answered our question with a question:
How do you have Christmas and NOT go?
That was the question that kept running through both of our minds the two weeks that we were home between our training and our leaving. How do we leave these people that we love so dearly? How do we leave knowing that it will be quite awhile before we spend this time with them again? How do we leave after all of this already-emotionally-charged-because-of-the-holidays concentrated family time? How do we say good-bye at this time of year? Maybe we should have done this at a "better" time...
And then it was Christmas.
And we remembered WHAT CHRISTMAS IS ALL ABOUT...
About how He came as a baby, but didn't stay that way. About how the King of Heaven left His throne to become one of us, for a purpose. About how He came to seek and to save. About forgiveness of sin. About hope of Heaven. Of abundant life now.
We REMEMBERED THE CROSS.
We remembered our sin. We remembered our debt - a debt we could not pay. A debt He paid, but did not owe. We remembered how He much He loves us.
We remembered how much He loves the whole world.
We remembered that all people need to know the "good tidings of great joy...a SAVIOR which is Christ the Lord..." that the angels proclaimed to the shepherds on that night so long ago.
We remembered how He who called us is faithful. We remembered that if we try to hold on so tightly to this life we will only end up losing it. We remembered that obedience to Him, no matter how crazy it may seem in this world's eyes, is always the right choice. We remembered His call. We remembered His voice.
We had Christmas and remembered we MUST go.
And so we answered our question with a question:
How do you have Christmas and NOT go?
Comments
Post a Comment