When I have what can seem like an ordinary day, it can be easy to allow my mind to drift. I have discovered that when it does that I can either look back over my shoulder at something from the past or I scan the horizon for something in the future. I am guessing most of you know what I mean. It can happen without thinking.
When I look over my shoulder, it can tempt me to look at ‘what was’. Depending on my disposition that means I will either review some very special days that warm my heart or very difficult days that hurt my heart in some way. The source of the temptation on such a day will likely determine which scrapbook of memories I review in my mind and that choice will affect what sets the tone for the rest of that day. I might be spurred to drop a note, make a phone call, or set up a coffee date, but I might fall prey to disappointment, bitterness, and anger.
When I scan the horizon for something in the future, I may scroll through my calendar to look at things that are plotted there. That might include when I am next going to see my children or grandchildren, meet a friend for coffee, or return to a favorite vacation spot. If I look at the empty spaces on the calendar, I might be tempted to yield to thoughts of whether or not anyone cares about me or even realizes I exist. Before long I can be swirling down a long dark tunnel if I yield.
I am confident that this tendency to look back over our shoulder or to scan the horizon and look ahead is common to us all to one degree or another. I see it in Facebook posts, on X feeds, in magazine articles, in conversations with friends, and on the news. We either love the ‘good old days’ or we try to forget, degrade, or minimize them and the impact they had on us. On the other side we might also spend much of our time focused on looking forward to the next thing, the next season, the next promotion, the next raise, the next…
I think there is no doubt that either choice (looking backward or looking ahead) has some value. When I look backward I can both appreciate where I have been and what I have done and also learn from those things to make my life now even better. When I look ahead I can know the joy of anticipating something I am planning toward, but I can also be tempted to see aging, future losses, and more.
As with most things in our lives, I think it is impossible to eliminate these behaviors even though we can (with God’s help) allow them to be used more positively than negatively. The issue is more about how much time I give to either of the choices in my view.
If I spend a great deal of time relishing or lamenting the past or yearning for or fearing the future, I miss today.
I love how the Amplified Bible reads in Hebrews 3:13:
“But continually encourage one another every day, as long as it is called “today” (and there is an opportunity), so that none of you will be hardened (into settled rebellion) by the deceitfulness of sin (its clevereness, delusive glamour, and sophistication).”
I see often in scripture in both Old and New Testament passages the word “today” is used as a linchpin. My choice of the word linchpin is very deliberate because of its definition: “a pin passed through the end of an axle to keep a wheel in position”. Is it a word God uses often to try to help keep us in position, to remember that what we have is today and to steward it well? I think it very well may be.
As I was reading in Cindy Liggett’s novel, The Sisters of Sugarcreek, I read these words:
“Regrets over yesterday and fear of tomorrow are twin thieves that rob us of today.”
Let us be wise not to miss these thieves hiding in plain sight.
Whether you have a large Christmas tree, a small one, or none at all, Christmas has still come.
Whether you have heaps of gifts, just a few gifts, or none at all to unwrap, Christmas has still come.
Whether you are filled with joy, or alone and grieving, Christmas has still come.
The best gift needed no tree, but died on one so you can receive the gift of eternal life with Him.
He simply loved you that much! It had nothing to do with who you were or where you were from, whether you were rich or poor, educated or illiterate.
On this day we celebrate the birth of Jesus,
He brings you the gift of new life in Him, with Him. He wants to dwell in your heart and walk with you through life’s ups and downs. All He asks is that you open your heart and receive Him.
When you are given a gift, your part is to open and receive it.
I have so much enjoyed sharing His story with you these last few weeks. I pray the Lord allowed you to sense Him in a special way.
Hope is the one ingredient that we want to never lose. It is the feeling of expectation and desire for something to happen that will be a blessing, will provide an answer, or perhaps an escape from something we wish to avoid facing.
We falter with hope as we travel through our days because we often hope in people or things that disappoint us, let us down, and cause us to doubt anyone is for us and what we seek. Not everything we long for comes to pass. The position we sought goes to someone else or disappears. The raise we were counting on evaporates in the economic downturn. The person we loved doesn’t love us as we wish. The medical miracle we hope for doesn’t happen. Friendships change and we feel alone. Life is a series of things like that until we consider the one truth that came at a time of great darkness for those who lived then – hope comes through the most unlikely places and the only One true source in whom we can hope – God, our only hope.
From the beginning of humankind’s existence, we have grappled with hope and that fateful disobedience in the Garden left an imprint in our DNA of doubting God’s goodness or understanding how evil operates in this world with all the things that come with it – disease, death, famine, war, selfishness, corrupt governments, and more. It caused Israel to question every promise God gave to that people. Things never went the way our human minds thought they should, and they doubted God was with them. They trusted people more than God. They hoped in human governments more than the Kingdom. Even after they were released from the slavery in Egypt, they questioned. Prophets told them of the One who would come to bring his peace and reign and they waited and as they waited, they doubted more as time went by.
They couldn’t believe hope would come on a cold night in the form of a baby born to an unknown couple in a stable outside Bethlehem. How could that be? They were under the heel of the Roman Empire and needed a warrior, a king with an army that would defeat these forces that kept them poor and unable to risk hoping. What could a baby do for them? It didn’t make sense and so many missed this event we seek to celebrate in these days of Advent.
In May of 1977, millions of people lined up to see a movie that everyone was excited about. It was the first movie in what became the epic Star Wars series, and it didn’t start at the beginning of the story but rather we entered the tale in Episode 4. Most of us don’t recall the title of that episode. It was “A New Hope.”
The backdrop is the unfolding of evil forces battling to control the universe, a theme we have seen on screens and in real life many times. The movie screen lights up with the words, “A long time ago in a galaxy far far away…” Scene by scene we discover we are watching a civil war waged by forces who have created a death star meant to bring the universe under their control and that a Princess Leia is racing home to her people with the blueprint of this death star to show how it can be destroyed before her people and planet are eliminated. As stories often go, she cannot make fast her escape and gives a message to a droid, R2D2, to carry the plans back. The message begins with her plea to someone she believes can save them, “Help me, Obi-Wan-Kenobi. You’re my only hope.”
If you know the movie, you know that this character, Obi-Wan-Kenobi, is an old Jedi knight born of another time when Jedi Knights operated with the power of “the force” against evil and kept evil from total success in the universe.
Those who find the droid go looking for this person and when they find him, they believe he will be someone who can save the day for them and save the princess in the bargain. How shocked they are when he comes face-to-face with the most potent enemy, Darth Vader, and he chooses what they cannot believe. As the enemy gloats that he will kill Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan tells him that when he is cut down, a much greater power will be unleashed than he can imagine. And then, he turns off his light saber offering himself to death.
Photo by Pixabay from Pexels
It seems all is lost as planets and warriors are decimated into bits, but then those who believed in Obi-Wan and “the Force” begin to “hear” his voice within, leading and guiding them in battle, helping them at every step of the way. Not all are saved, but those who follow that inner voice begin to experience the power they believed was not open to them in their feeble unskilled experience. And because Obi-Wan was gone, the evil could not be sure of where the power would come from or how it might be used against them. It wasn’t a victory they win in that first fight that would eliminate all evil forces, but the beginning of a story that would unfold through more episodes that would keep moviegoers coming back to theaters for years to come.
Little wonder we see a similar story unfold in the New Testament as the children of Israel are still hoping for a Messiah to save them and then miss his birth as the One who is hope. When He grew from that baby into manhood and began teaching in the synagogue and on hillsides and in fishing boats, many missed Him again. Yes, there were disciples who followed and helped Him as he went, but even they could not conceive that instead of taking power from the Roman Empire, He would lay down his life on a cruel cross and multiply his power for evermore. Now He would operate unseen by human eyes and yet could be heard by common shepherds, children, and any and all who would believe.
And here we are again, reliving a familiar story. A vaccine that was to be the answer does not solve or defeat the virus, wars go on, economies struggle, and we look for hope in a better place (if we are wise). We wonder if God is with us in this day and if He is, why He doesn’t move to get us out of this mess.
“The present age does not have the last word.
Life that leads us through the wilderness is unexpected and daunting. It can drop us to our knees in prayer and supplication or cause us to ignore what’s best in order to gain a quick entrance to the other side. This is the intersection of life where God is waiting. This is where we either say “yes” to God and trust Him to provide and protect, or we grab the steering wheel to maneuver the path in our own power.”
Mary Geisen in The Advent Narrative
These wise words remind us that the path we casually read in the Old and New Testament or see played out in a film like Star Wars is repeating itself but this time, we are the players in the scene. Will we miss our role? Will we put our hope in sources that cannot help us? Will we believe that the One who died is very much present with us now even though our physical eyes cannot see Him?
Mary Geisen pointed to the truth in the pandemic of 2020, and it holds true in our present day.
“But in the middle of this crisis, we as believers can rest in the truth that Jesus arrived two thousand years ago as a baby ready to live and die for our transgressions. We can proclaim with the authority of Jesus that He will come again as we wait for the pandemic to subside. Most of all, our hearts can cry together “Come, Lord Jesus” as we hold the present and future in the palm of our hands, believing that God already has this figured out.”
It can be easy to be myopic in 2025, to see the world only through a nearsighted lens. At a time, the entire world seems to becoming more dangerous each day. We feel that even more as we approach Christmas, but in the midst of warring factions of all types in all areas of the world one example stands out to me as we approach Christmas Eve. Some of you may know the story, but it bears repeating when so much has sought to divide us during this year.
In July 1914 “the war to end all wars” began. Most of us know it as WW I and it still stands as one of the most horrific wars that mankind has endured. Men on the battlefield lived in trenches filled with the wounded, dead, filth, water, rats, and poison gas raining over them for four long years until November 11, 1918. For all the tragedies that occurred, “the war to end all wars” didn’t accomplish that mission.
On December 7, 1914, Pope Benedict XV proposed a halt of fighting between the warring nations for the celebration of Christmas. The leaders of the nations rejected his proposal, and the war went on, but then on Christmas Eve a strange thing happened along the 400-mile battle lines that had already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives during the previous months of battle.
Later in the evening on Christmas Eve the sounds of gunfire began to quiet. Soldiers waited in uncertainty wondering what their enemies would now do. And then in the midst of the cold, wet, muddy trenches came a sound no one expected – the German soldiers began to sing “Stille Nacht” that the English soldiers knew as “Silent Night” which had first been written in German. Confusion slipped away as the English soldiers listened and then began to sing back the familiar song. The men in the trenches had determined they would determine a ceasefire the nations’ leaders would not. What began in one spot soon began to occur at other locations along the long battle line.
Photo copyright by Alamy in Wikipedia
The story of that night goes on with some saying that a solider from one side of the battle line called across the “no man’s land” and invited his enemy to meet halfway between the trenches. Little by little men anxiously climbed out of their trenches to meet in the barbed wire space between the enemy armies.
Many of the men brought gifts of things they had received to share with their enemies – tobacco, chocolate, hats, badges, and alcohol among them. German soldiers reportedly lit candles along the edges of their trenches at some places. Handshakes were exchanged and songs shared along with the meager gifts they shared. Sometimes bartering took place as a soldier would offer a haircut for a tin of tobacco. There were stories of football being played, not everyone was in agreement with what was happening and it didn’t happen across all the battle lines.
It was not widely adopted in the areas of the front controlled by the French and there was no equivalent stoppage on the Eastern Front with Russia, but what became known as the “Christmas Truce” between the United Kingdom and German soldiers was a special time that was never again repeated. Violence returned to the Western Front, but some areas were without bloodshed until New Year’s Day.
It can be easy for any and all of us to complain about division that has increased over so many things in so many places. We blame leaders at every level and of every political stripe. We want someone to fix this, to make a difference, and to make this hard time go away…at least for Christmas. But what about the example we see in this story from 1914? What took place was not done when a Pope requested it. It was not a chosen path for the political leaders of the nations that did it. It was common men in the midst of unthinkable conditions that sought for the calm of a “silent night.”
What a powerful testimony!
History of such a truce was not repeated, but over and over again history highlights moments in time where one man or woman or just a few made a choice out of their own conscience and values that made a difference and sometimes changed the course of history for good.
How like Christmas when one ordinary man and woman were chosen by God to be the earthly parents of the Son of God who would be fully human and fully divine and change the course of the world forever!
What about us, you and me, what difference are we making instead of waiting on those in authority over us to make a change? What has caused us to forget the authority as believers that God has given us and the commission to be salt and light?
Salt and light are most significant in the midst of darkness, shadow, famine, and distress and it is when it is most needed.
How can you make a difference across enemy battle lines?
That night in the manger was a simple setting for the birthplace of a King. No thrones or crowns, no trumpets announcing his entrance, and no soft cozy bed for Him to lay in. The feed trough would have been rough wood and the straw used for padding would have been prickly. The sounds of the animals would have been the lullaby He first heard, and his first visitors would be the lowly shepherds (those on the lowest rungs of the culture at the time). What a simple scene for this profound entrance of the Son of God!
Thousands of years later the celebration of his birth more likely features a far grander display. Lights abound instead of the dimly lit stable that awaited his arrival. Glittering glass balls adorn trees trimmed in red, green, gold, silver, and every other color we may like instead of the cedar, fig, date palm and olive trees his family would have seen along the path to the stable. They would have been accustomed to walking long distances as a poor couple and feel fortunate to have a donkey.
The debut of Jesus on the earth would foreshadow what his life and ministry would be like. He chose the simple settings – hillsides, boats, breaking bread with a few close companions. He chose the ordinary people of the day, the common people – uneducated, often poor, those without vast theological knowledge.
Have you ever wondered why?
Could it be because simplicity removes the things that distract from what is most important?
Consider the impact of a single candle lit in a window or a darkened room. It draws our focus and seems to quiet us, hushing the noise within us so we can hear more keenly the smallest whisper. It captures our attention more completely than a million little twinkling lights that fill a landscape, but never cause us to notice the individual lights within the display or give us time to pause and reflect.
For all that may be different about this Christmas season for you, perhaps He has opened the door to simplicity once again and it is a special gift from his heart to ours – the gift of simplicity.
“Simplicity is the secret to seeing things clearly. A saint does not think clearly until a long time passes, but a saint ought to see clearly without any difficulty. You cannot think through spiritual confusion to make things clear; to make things clear, you must obey. In intellectual matters you can think things out, but in spiritual matters you will only think yourself into further wandering thoughts and more confusion.”
Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest
If this is a simpler Advent, what would He have us see more clearly about Him and ourselves this year? Could He be preparing us for the Second Advent that is slated to be quite different from the first?
What does He want us to see in the gift of simplicity?
Can we yield our disappointments over what we may be missing to discover what gift we have been given?
Can these moments push back the sense of anything that would seek to undo us and rob us of the joy of the gift of simplicity born in a stable so long ago?
Will we invite Him in to whatever state we find ourselves so He can truly be with us as never before?
Is there something He wants for us more than a grand celebration?
“Even the smallest thing that we allow in our lives that is not under the control of the Holy Spirit is completely sufficient to account for spiritual confusion, and spending all of our time thinking about it will never make it clear. Spiritual confusion can only be conquered through obedience. As soon as we obey, we have discernment.”
Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest
We will never know unless we accept the gift and open it to discover all that He has tucked inside for us.
“The setting of priorities is not a once-and-for-all act. It has to be redone frequently. Balances shift. Circumstances change. Moods swing. Is it still God, in fact, with whom I have first of all to do, or is it not? Prayer is the place where the priorities are reestablished.”
Eugene Peterson in Run with the Horses
Let us delight in the gift of simplicity this Advent season and enter into quiet communion with the One who modeled this gift so we could learn to see more clearly and hear more sharply and defeat the confusion that would rob us of all He is.
