Complete in Thee: Memories of Christmas Past

Monday, December 7, 2009

Memories of Christmas Past

I remember that Christmas vaguely... it must have been the Christmas when I was seven years old. I remember going to the R's house and Megan giving us little ornaments that she and her mom had made themselves. Each of us received an ornament in red and white stripes of clay bearing the first initial of our names.

Year after year, these ornaments found a place on our tree, and year after year, we thought of our dear friend Megan who had moved far away to Maine.

Then for several years we did not have a Christmas tree, and the ornaments did not go up. Two years ago we got a new tree and pulled the ornaments out again. Finding a place for my clay ornament on the tree, I thought of my friend Megan and wondered where she was and what she was doing. Perhaps she is married, I wondered. Or perhaps she is at college. Wherever she was, I dreamed of meeting up with her one day in the future.

Most of you may remember the shock we experienced this April at the news that Megan had been accidentally shot and killed by a hunter in December of 2006 (see posts here and here). Today is has been three years since she went to be with the Lord, though to us it hasn't even been a year yet. Looking at those ornaments, I remember the sweet friendship we had with Megan, the pain of learning of her death, and the joy and comfort in knowing that we will see her one day in Heaven.

Losing someone you love is a hard thing. This Christmas will be our second without our Grandma Wolfe; it will be Brian W's first with his wife and kids; it will be my Aunt Lois' first without her niece Angela; it will be the R's third without Megan. And yet, at this time so often associated with peace and joy, we can have peace and joy. When Jesus Christ came to earth, it was to live a perfect life and take our sins upon Himself, redeeming us to Himself so that we might have life in His Name and access to the Father. Christmas is about life-- eternal life. Without Jesus, Emmanuel, we would not have this life, and yet He came and lived and died and rose again-- and He has given us abundant life! Because of Him, death does not have that same sting that it has for others, as we know that beyond it lies eternal life in the presence of God-- never-ending, joy-filled, wondrous LIFE!

We can rejoice in the this hope that we have in Christ, for it is a well-grounded hope, a promise from One who is always faithful and true. While we may miss the people who have gone Home before us, we may joy in the fact that theirs and our relationship with Jesus is unshakable, and we are pressing on towards that day when we will be with those others, with Jesus, in heaven.

With the Christmas season underway, I encourage you to not be swept up in the false joy that the world has during this time, but set your eyes on Jesus Christ-- "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men" (John 1:4). We have so much to praise Him for!

"Hail the heav'n born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Ris'n with healing in his wings.
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die,
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth."
-Charles Wesley, 1739

3 comments:

Teddy said...: Melanie, that was one of the most beautiful things I've ever read and I (who rarely cry) couldn't read through the sheen over my eyes and was having trouble swallowing. THANK YOU for tying it all back into Christ and our wondrous hope in Him!!!!!; December 7, 2009 at 3:11 PM
Rebecca Ann said...: Yes thank you Melanie for sharing your love for the Lord with us through your friend's life and through Him! I can't wait to meet your friend someday. That is such a comfort and I can't wait to meet Him too!; December 8, 2009 at 6:29 PM
Amanda said...: Thank you, sis!! It is useless to look for joy in the world's interpretation of Christmas - in Christ, we find it all!

(P.S. You have an excellent talent for making people cry, especially those people who are tied up in what you write about.); December 10, 2009 at 4:20 PM

PRAYER REQUESTS

"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints" (Ephesians 6:18)

PLEASE PRAY...

* That I would draw nearer to God every day and never allow my relationship to become stagnant ritual; particularly that I would grow in the area of submission, patience, 1 Corinthians 13 love, and wholehearted devotion

* That I might have wisdom as I edit "The Marquis' Daughter"; that the Lord would bless and work through it; and that I might find just the right publisher for it.

* That I would submit to the Lord's work in my life, whatever it may be; that I would take each opportunity He brings me (even the seemingly hard ones) to draw closer to Him and point others to Him

*That our Etsy shop might be successful and that it would be a means by which we can glorify God and share the Gospel

Ephesians 2:1-10

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

"The heart set to do the Father's will need never fear defeat. His promises of guidance may be fully counted upon. Does it make sense to believe that the Shepherd would care less about getting His sheep where He wants them to go than they care about getting there?"

"God is God. Because He is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience. I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will, a will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to."

"If God, like a father, denies us what we want now it is in order to give us some far better thing later on. The will of God, we can rest assured, is invariably a better thing."

"Obedience to God's will is the secret of spiritual knowledge and insight. It is not willingness to know, but willingness to DO (obey) God's will that brings certainty."

"Victory over all the circumstances of life comes not by might, nor by power, but by a practical confidence in God and by allowing His Spirit to dwell in our hearts and control our actions and emotions. Learn in the days of ease and comfort, to think in terms of the prayer that follows, so that when the days of hardship come you will be fully prepared and equipped to meet them."

"And shall I pray, Oh, change Thy will, my Father,
Until it be according unto mine?
Ah no, Lord, no, that never could be, rather
I pray Thee, Blend my human will with Thine."

"A crucified life cannot be self-assertive. It cannot protect itself. It cannot be startled into resentful words. The cup that is full of sweet water cannot spill bitter-tasting drops, however sharply it is knocked."

"And as we rest our hearts upon what we know (the certainty of the ultimate triumph of good), leaving what we do not know to the Love that has led us all our life long, the peace of God enters into us and abides. And then we see our light."

[A Practicing Christian]...it means that every single act and feeling, every experience, whether pleasant or unpleasant, must be referred to God. It means looking at everything as something that comes from Him, and always looking to Him and asking His will first, and saying, "How would he wish me to deal with this?"

Christ says: "Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work. I want you."

"I was not born to be free. I was born to adore and to obey."

"What is saving but taking us out of the dark into the light? There is no salvation but to know God and grow like Him."

"I will not try to convince you of anything about God. I cannot. You must know Him. I only tell you I believe in Him with all my heart. You must ask Him to explain Himself to you, and not take it for granted that He has done you a wrong because He has done what you do not like. Whether you seek Him or not, He will do you justice. But He cannot explain Himself unless you seek Him."

"Sometimes a thunderbolt will shoot from a clear sky; and sometimes into the life of a peaceful individual, without warning of gathered storm, something terrible will fall. And from that moment everything is changed. That life is no more what it was. Better it ought to be, worse it may be. The result depends on the life itself and it's response to the invading storm of trouble. Forever after, it's spiritual weather is altered. But for the one who believes in God, such rending and frightful catastrophies never come but where they are turned around for good in his own life and in other lives he touches."