The Adventures of Christmas Sample

December 24th

How much do you love snow? Could you live in the North Pole? Is your favorite Christmas song “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow?” Would you be happy if your neighborhood looked like a snow globe at least one season a year? Or do you hate snow? You’re not sure why God made a northern hemisphere. You would be okay if it snowed one day a year on December 25th and then melted on December 26th.

While I love the look of snow, I don’t like shoveling it, driving in it, or falling down in it. I’m not built for winter. But my kids love snow. There can be a light dusting and my youngest is begging to make a snowman. For a kid, snow means snowmen, sledding, forts and snowball fights. But for an adult, snow usually means work.

For some of us, the greatest gift we could get or give this Christmas is a new perspective. We’ve become negative, pessimistic, sarcastic, toxic, draining to be around. We could win the lottery and complain about the taxes. Like the Grinch, our hearts have become two sizes too small. While we have been praying for God to change our circumstances, perhaps we should be praying for him to change our perspective. Maybe the very experiences that are ruining your holiday are the very experiences God is trying to use to grow you.

I’m sure Mary wasn’t thrilled with traveling to Bethlehem at nine months pregnant. That’s a long way to waddle. I’m sure she wasn’t thrilled about not having any pain meds while giving birth to her first baby. I’m sure she wasn’t thrilled about not having her mom by her side to coach her through the experience. I’m sure she wasn’t thrilled that nobody had a comfy bed for her to lay in, but rather got stuck with laying her precious baby in a manger.

And yet this is the very scene we stick on ornaments, cards and in lawns recognizing it as one of life’s greatest miracles. The very things you are not thrilled with just might be a miracle in the making; an ornament worthy of placing on God’s Christmas tree this holiday season.