Christmas

I’ve been reading all over about how to slow down during the holidays. I guarantee that I have the solution for you if this is what you’re seeking.

Expose your children, to a person that has the flu. Beginning with the exposed child it will work its way through your family. You will be excused from any and all obligations.

Yes, I have spent the last seven days in my home taking care of sick children. Really sick. I must confess that I feel a bit resentful that I have missed several Christmas parties, and now tonight, the Christmas Eve service. And a party following it. And our trip to Wisconsin.

However, the time spent doing double laundry and holding burning foreheads has given me time for study and reflection that I don’t think I’ve ever experienced since becoming a mom.

I had posted about a body and soul cleanse that Eli and I started. The juice cleanse is super yummy and easy, so anybody that is thinking of doing it, I say go for it.  I could be wrong, but I think the overload of vitamins has kept Eli and I from getting whatever the kids have.

Eli and I both agree that we need to celebrate when it’s over by going to Red Robin and getting a big juicy burger. Or two.

The soul cleanse has been…AMAZING.

Eli and I are reading The Pursuit of God by Tozer. Every sentence has been meat for my hungry soul. I’m not even sure where to start.

As we were leaving Three Lakes, a dear friend who has been a constant prayer warrior and source of encouragement to Eli and I, gave us The Story for Children. As Eli and I try to read Bible stories to our kids daily, we are always excited to get a new Bible storybook. In the beautifully written and illustrated book, she had written personal notes and scripture to us in the story of Abraham.

“By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went even though he didn’t know what God would do for him there. By faith, he and his whole family followed God because he considered Him faithful who had made the promise. Abraham did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was STRENGTHENED in his faith and gave glory to GOD. Abraham grew to be FULLY PERSUADED that GOD had the POWER to do what HE promised. Abraham believed GOD and GOD loved his believing heart and love for him.” Heb. 11:8,9,10,11 Rom. 3:16-21.

So I tried to believe this analogy of our lives.

But I was having trouble.

When you leave the place where you have lived and served for the eight years, where people appreciate who you ARE; the good, the bad, the ugly, where you have a history with your relationships and have experienced true fellowship with dear friends, where your ministry was thriving and effective, and you come into a new place where you are not KNOWN, where gifts and talents are hidden or obsolete, and relationships are as green as the new growth on a fir tree in spring, it’s hard to feel like your faith is being strengthened.

At least it was for me.

But Abraham’s story didn’t end with his move.  It.  Was.  The.  Beginning.

Look it up. Genesis 12.

Enter Isaac.  Genesis 22.

Day 2 of our cleanse, Eli and I were reading the chapter in Tozer’s book entitled, “The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing.”

“…The baby represented everything sacred to his father’s heart: the promises of God, the covenants, the hopes of the years and the long messianic dream. Ashe watched him grow from babyhood to young manhood, the heart of the old man was knit closer and closer with the life of his son, till at last the relationship bordered upon the perilous. It was then that God stepped in to save both father and son from the consequences of an uncleansed love.

‘Take now thy son,’ said God to Abraham, ‘thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of’ (Genesis 22:2).The sacred writer spares us a close-up of the agony that night on the slopes near Beersheba when the aged man had it out with his God,…He would offer his son as God had directed him to do, and then trust God to raise him from the dead…It is beautiful to see that, while he erred as to God’s method, he had correctly sensed the secret of His great heart…To the wondering patriarch He now says in effect, ‘It’s alright, Abraham. I never intended that you should slay the lad. I only wanted to remove him from the temple of your heart that I might reign unchallenged there. I wanted to correct the perversion that existed in your love…’He chose rather to cut quickly to the heart and have it over in one sharp act of separation. In dealing thus, He practiced an economy of means and time. It hurt cruelly, but it was effective.

After that bitter and blessed experience I think the words my and mine never again had never had the same meaning for Abraham. The sense of possession which they connote were gone from his heart. Things had been cast out forever…He could not explain it, but he knew that he owned nothing, that his real treasures were inward and eternal.”

This is where I find my own story intersecting with Abraham’s at this time.

My Isaac,

Was the SIGNIFICANCE

I found for myself in Three Lakes.

Whether it was perceived or real, it doesn’t matter. But, it “represented everything sacred to (my) heart: the promises of God, the covenants, the hopes of the years…”

In our move to Utah, God, “chose rather to cut quickly to the heart and have it over in one sharp act of separation.”

Our move to Utah was not:

• So my talents could be utilized more effectively.
• So that Eli and I could help ease the burden of the many responsibilities that the leaders of our church carry.

Or even,

•  So that many would come to know Christ.

Our move to Utah was:

• So that I would possess NOTHING.
•  But would have EVERYTHING.

      And in that place, my life will glorify God.

But, like Abraham, my story doesn’t end here either.

Through Abraham, all people on earth were blessed (Gen. 12:3).

And tomorrow, we celebrate, that covenant. The birth of Christ.  

Merry Christmas!