"Merry Christmas from my heart to yours" ....
During the Christmas season, let us remember the reason for the celebration... let us keep in mind that it is because of a man, the Prince of Peace, who in Spirit always walks among us.... We can still see Christmas all around us.... houses decorated with lights, trees beautifully adorned, poinsettias everywhere, bright packages in store-front windows, red bows and ribbons, eggnog in the dairy section, etc... all promising we will be touched by something extraordinary.
But Christmas is a time of memory as much as celebration. For some it is memory of loss, intensified because for all our lives, we have seen it as the season of promise. So much promised by friends and family... so little given in the rush. Christmas is and can be lonely for some... A loneliness that crowds us like no other as we turn inward, farther from reality than at any other season.
We need to prepare for and be aware of the melancholy that accompanies the outward beauty... We need to be aware of the lonely people we encounter and offer them a bit of the love and light that we carry in our hearts... As Christians, we need to step outside ourselves and think about the infant in the manger long ago... Not only should we remember His birthday, but the trials and truth that marked His life, and down these many years, also, mark ours. We are better because He was the best. Throughout His life He carried the keys to His father’s house, then threw them to us from the cross.... Whatever went before, we have to believe that life only started when His life began.
Being in construction, I see God as the architect, who sent Christ, His only son, as the contractor to be the builder of bridges, people to people.... He showed us in a thousand ways that none of us need fear, that worry is worth nothing, loneliness is self-indulgence, and death is only a passport to everlasting life.
Believe in your hearts that "God has given him a name which is above every name – that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord…" Philippians 2:9-11.
... resolve to smile inside and out.... carry kindness to its farthest edge and compassion still beyond... walk the bridges with confidence and faith knowing always that Jesus is walking at your side... and in the process you may even come to know yourself and like what you find.... Know in your heart that as you walk through life, you can reach out and just maybe grasp the outstretched hand of God because you are loved beyond measure and a cherished blessing to the world...
May you be blessed with all things good... and may others be blessed by you... this is my heartfelt wish to you always, With love,
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