Birthday "Presence"

Saturday, 14 Dec 2002

The King of all the earth is having a birthday party! The preparations are being made, the decorations are going up, the presents are being bought. People are scurrying around making all things right for the BIG DAY!
December 25th!
The day we will celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ!

The smell of freshly baked cookies and treats are filling the homes all over the earth.
Invitation lists are being put together so that all will come and celebrate!
Violins are being tuned, songs are being rehearsed and programs are being printed for performances that will soon fill our churches with the sounds of Christmas!

Jesus Christ, born this day over 2000 years ago, changed the course of history, bringing hope and cheer into our lives like no other Person born ever has. The birth of this little Baby Boy in a stable was the answer for all mankind. The answer to all our trials, all our fears, all our questions! He answered them all by showing us the way to eternal life. He was born to die, and then to live again forever. We were born to die, and then to live again forever with Him when we believe in Him!
Why shouldn't the biggest celebration of all be for Him, about Him, and with Him....ooopps.
With Him....
Where did He go?
Is He here?
Where is the Guest of Honor?
Has He disappeared?
Sometimes I can't seem to find Him anywhere in all the preparations,
in all the talk, in all the celebration...?
What does Jesus think about His own birthday party?
Does He want to come?
Does He feel welcome?
Has He even gotten an invitation, or been told the time, the place and the plans?
Will we have a party to honor Him, and yet not invite Him?
I wonder...

During my prayer time this morning, I asked Jesus what He thought about all the preparations for His birthday? A picture came into my mind of a little boy standing off in a corner of the room feeling left out, forgotten, ignored. The adults were so busy making preparations for his birthday, they had forgotten that he was even there.
Is that how Jesus feels this time of year?
During all the preparations for His birthday party, is He left in the background of it all?

In the Bible in 2 Chronicles, it tells about Solomon building a Temple for the Lord. "He enlisted a force of 70,000 common laborers, 80,000 stonecutters in the hill country, and 3,600 foremen."  When it was finished, the "priests carried the Ark of the Lord's covenant into the inner sanctuary of the Temple - The Most Holy Place - and placed it beneath the wings of the cherubim." In that Ark were the two stone tablets that Moses had placed there at Mount Sinai. Then the priests left the Holy Place, and there were musicians playing harps and lyres, joined by priests playing trumpets, and singers performing together to praise and give thanks to the Lord with these words:

"He is so good!
His faithful love endures forever!"
At that moment a cloud filled the Temple of the Lord. The priests could not continue their work because the glorious presence of the Lord filled the Temple of God.
2 Chronicles 5:13-14
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The Lord had arrived and filled the Temple!
Solomon asked:

2 Chronicles 6:18
"But will God really live on earth among people?
Why, even the highest heavens cannot contain you.
How much less this Temple I have built!"
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And then He prayed:

2 Chronicles 6:40-41
"O my God, be attentive to all the prayers made to you in this place. And now, O Lord God, arise and enter this resting place of yours, where your magnificent Ark has been placed. May your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and may your saints rejoice in your goodness."
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2 Chronicles 7:1-3
When Solomon finished praying, fire flashed down from heaven and burned up the burnt offerings and sacrifices, and the GLORIOUS PRESENCE of the Lord filled the Temple. The priests could not even enter the Temple of the Lord because the GLORIOUS PRESENCE of the Lord filled it. When all the people of Israel saw the fire coming down and the GLORIOUS PRESENCE of the Lord filling the Temple, they fell face down on the ground and worshiped and praised the Lord, saying,

"He is so good!
His faithful love endures forever!"
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The Lord had come! The preparations had been made, God had been invited, and He attended! Not only attended, but filled the place with His presence!!

Wow! I would like to have been there...but wait!!
I can be there!
I can not only be there, I don't even have to stay outside like the priests did!
I can enter into the Most Holy Place today!

Hebrews 10:19-22
And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven's Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. This is the new, life-giving way that Christ has opened up for us through the sacred curtain, by means of his death for us.

And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God's people, let us go right into the presence of God, with true hearts fully trusting him. For our evil consciences have been sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.
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Jesus invites us in! We are no longer asked to wait outside because of the presence of God filling the Temple.
When Jesus was born, He made a new way for us all to worship.
The Temple is now us, our bodies, our hearts, and God enters in and fills us with His presence when we invite Him.

That is why we celebrate Christmas.
That is why we celebrate the birth of our Savior.
That is where our hope and joy come from on this earth, and yet...we get so busy in the preparations for the celebration that we forget the Guest of Honor. We leave Him at home when we shop, we leave Him in the back room when we cook, we decorate our homes while Jesus stands on the front porch and knocks, wanting to join in, but we are "busy". Oh sure, we think of Him from time to time, maybe when we see a Nativity Scene and look at the little Baby in the manger, or when we attend church services that focus our attention on Him, but what about the rest of the time? What about in the details? Why are we so stressed from the shopping and the planning and the lists, that we forget what we are really celebrating?

Would Jesus miss the Christmas tree, the wrapped presents, the special foods, or does He miss our attention even more?
Does He miss the times we used to spend with Him before we got so busy preparing for His birthday?
Do you know that Jesus wants to be involved in these preparations?
It's not that He doesn't appreciate all we do to celebrate Him, but He wants to be a part of it!

The other day during my prayer time, I simply asked God what He wanted me to do for the day. His still quiet voice said, "You need to go Christmas shopping". Now, you may think this is crazy, but I'm sharing it with you anyway. I never really thought about the meaning of this until writing this e-mail, about God instructing me to go Christmas shopping! That must mean He has nothing against Christmas shopping, buying gifts for others but that He wants to help with that part of the celebration too. He wants to help in any way we will let Him. He was perhaps just glad I had included Him in my day, in the plans.

After He told me that, I thought about what the next few weeks held for me, and I realized as I was looking ahead that every day was busy until Christmas Eve, except for the weekends. God knew that before I even had put it all together. I am not a shopper, and haven't been to the mall since I can't tell you when. It's not my thing, and God knows that. He knew I was avoiding this part of Christmas, so He was helping me out a bit. After He told me that I needed to get my shopping done, I realized that it really was the last day I could do my shopping without fighting the crowds, and I suddenly felt an intense desire to get out and get it done. I know God put that desire in my heart. Not only that, when I was out "shopping with God", as I put it, it was a pleasure. I completed my entire Christmas shopping in one day, hassle free, and pleased with my purchases. God's miracles don't always mean making the blind see. Sometimes it means helping us when we need help in ordinary things.

You may say, oh, God is not that involved in our lives. He does not care about those intimate details. You may say that this is crazy, and that's fine. All I know is what God does for me, and I love Him for the great care He takes in getting me through my every day, when I simply ask Him.

About two years ago I was on my knees praying about Christmas. Once again, not being a shopper it was my biggest dilemma. Now, I'm going to tell you this, going out on a limb because many won't believe me, but God made out my Christmas list for me. I usually have a list with everyone's names on it, and as I was there on my knees God would bring an idea to my mind and I would fill it in under each person's name. I stayed there on my knees, jotting down God's ideas one at a time until the entire list was completed. This including shopping for a young man who would be spending Christmas with us who I did not know extremely well. God even gave me ideas for him too. The list was perfect, I followed it and shopped stress that year.

Yes, God will even make our lists, and He will even go shopping with us if we will invite Him to. He cares for us that much!

So what about the actual day of the celebration?
What do we do about Jesus on the day of His birthday?
Do we include Him?
Do we let Him be a part of our thoughts, of our dinner, of our time with our families?

Last year was the most difficult Christmas we have ever had. To have Phil missing, to have his chair empty...well, difficult does not even describe it...but we invited Jesus to be with us. We invited Him to our table, to our day, and even though I say the day was difficult, I want to take that back...it was filled with the presence of our Savior, and it was a very blessed time. We lit candles as we remembered Phil. We read Scripture and prayed as a family and we stayed focused on the Hope that was before us, instead of the pain that filled our hearts.

I have encountered families who are losing loved ones right now and I think, "No, not at Christmastime. It just doesn't seem right. The holidays should be joyous."
To have it intertwined with death and missing seems wrong. And yet, that was us last year. We had Phil's service on December 1st and our church was decorated for Christmas. Our Christmas cards arrived intermixed with sympathy cards last year. It didn't seem wrong at the time because it just was what it was. There was no way to avoid either.
Phil was gone and Christmas would come as always.

How we would survive it was the question. Would we even celebrate? It's a question that many will ask themselves when they are facing the greatest broken heart of their life and Christmas is upon them.
Do we celebrate?
How can we?
Why should we?

I remember thinking those same things, and I'm not saying we put up all the lights, decorated to the maximum, invited crowds to our house and baked up a storm! Believe me, we didn't. We kept things quiet and simple and yet...we knew we needed to be celebrating. Not yippee-yeehaa celebrating, but a quiet reflection on the life of our much loved son, and the life of God's much loved Son. To not celebrate the day, would mean we grieve without Hope. That we would not do. God's word says to grieve as one with hope.

1 Thessalonians 4:13
And now, brothers and sisters, I want you to know what will happen
to the Christians who have died so you will not be full of
sorrow like people who have no hope.
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We know what happens to Christians when they die, so even though we were full of sorrow, it was not like those without hope. We have hope, and that hope comes from Jesus.
We would celebrate His day!

1 Thessalonians 4:14
For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus comes, God will bring back with Jesus all the Christians who have died.
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We grieved because our hearts were broken, because we missed our son, but we also rejoiced because God sent His One and Only Son to earth as a Baby and provided a way for us to see our son once again. We celebrated the day of our Savior's birth not because we were happy, but because we had joy. Happiness is the result of external circumstances and joy is the result of internal hope in Christ. Our circumstances were the most difficult we had ever faced and happiness was not what we sought. Joy was what our hearts desired and by celebrating our Savior's birth with broken hearts, joy was what we found. Quiet, reflective, Spirit-filled hours of missing and heartache but also Joy and Hope.

Why celebrate? Because as Christians, if we don't celebrate the day of our Savior's birth even with broken hearts, what are we saying? It all means nothing? When hearts are broken, that God will not provide? Oh no, in our hearts we knew we must celebrate, although it might be different. It might be done more quietly, but we would celebrate.

It is obedience in the face of complete opposition from the enemy. It is rejoicing when the enemy thinks he has won. It is giving thanks when the enemy thinks we have nothing to be thankful for. Inviting Jesus to our table to celebrate Him when the enemy thinks we will be blaming God for all our troubles. Doing the opposite of what the world thinks because we KNOW our Savior, and we KNOW He is bigger than any trouble the enemy can ever bring our way.

We had presents under our tree last year, but the presents that really mattered was spelled "Presence."
It was His presence in the midst of our heartache, our missing and our longing to see our son again that brought us Joy. Inviting Jesus to His own party. Focusing on the reason for the season because without that, the season meant nothing to us. We could have cared less about pretty lights, freshly baked cookies or wrapped gifts under the tree. We would have choked on the turkey and dressing for the memories it brought. We could have skipped church because the words to the songs sent daggers into our hearts. We would have avoided it all together, but we chose not to. We chose to celebrate with Jesus, for Jesus and about Jesus.

And, HE CAME to His party!! He brought joy to our hearts, as He will again this year!

I shop with a lighter heart this year and I attend parties and laugh and enjoy life once again. God has done a tremendous amount of healing since last year and we are grateful!
I pray for those whose hearts are broken and I long to reach out and touch them with God's goodness. The goodness I have felt in my own life.
I long to tell them God is bigger than all their hurt and pain.
I long for them to know the God that I have met up close and personal in this last year like never before in my life.

"He is so good!
His faithful love endures forever!"
At that moment a cloud filled the Temple of the Lord. The priests could not continue their work because the glorious presence of the Lord filled the Temple of God.
2 Chronicles 5:13-14
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And I want everyone to know that God is so good! That His faithful love does endure forever! That we are His temple and He will fill us with His glorious presence if we will only invite Him in.

Invite Jesus to His birthday party. Even if you don't feel like celebrating, have Him "over". Ask Him what He thinks about the shopping, the decorations, the tree. Remember Him as you sit down at the table, and let Him fill your heart with joy, especially if there is a huge hole in your heart because there is an empty chair this year for the first time, or maybe once again.

It's Jesus' Birthday Party! Don't leave Him on the "front porch" knocking on the door of your heart! He wants to join in, to become a part of your life if you will only let Him. Let Him join in on the party and let your home be filled with the gift of His Presence, then you will truly enjoy His presents under the tree.

James 1:17
Every good and perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights,
who does not change like shifting shadows.
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God never changes, but He changes us as we allow Him to. He is changing my broken heart into one so overflowing with His love that I will never be the same again. He is replacing the pain and the sorrow with joy like never before.
When I think of Phil now, I think of where he is and Who he is with. I think of all the things he will never have to go through because Heaven is a wondrous place, and this world can be so difficult. Phil's job is finished here and he enjoys each Christmas in Heaven now with our Savior.
As they celebrate together in Heaven, we will celebrate here on earth connected by the Spirit of God that will never leave us nor forsake us!

Living in His peace,
Diane