Christmas Eve Ramblings

This morning as I sit to write, my mind is pretty foggy and I’m having a hard time staying focused.  Sometimes, just putting pen to paper helps sift through the thoughts that are swirling around and make sense of what’s up there.  So, I recognize two whirlwinds that are picking up dust and cluttering the landscape.

First one happens to be the lyrics to a chorus you’ll recognize. The chorus repeats:  He loves us! Oh, how he loves us, Oh how he loves...  The verse I keep hearing says:  And heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss and my heart beats wildly inside my chest.  I don’t have time to maintain these regrets, when I think about...He loves us!  Oh, how he loves us...

The second whirlwind seems to be the lines of a little prayer I learned years ago, which I think is titled The Serenity Prayer.  You’ll recognize it, too.  Lord, help me to accept the things I cannot change; have the courage to change the things I can; and, the wisdom to know the difference.

I know – pretty random, huh?  Yet, as my mind clears with the recognition of what’s circling around in my thoughts, I don’t have to think long about the “why” of either whirlwind, and I know it’s the Lord’s way of planting seeds of truth that need to be watered for the purpose of sprouting into fruitful living.

Here’s my moment of clarity:

He loves me.  Of this truth, I am unwaveringly certain.  However, there are things in my life that I certainly “regret.”  Not necessarily things I have done, or acted out, but more the way events have unfolded; the moments that have passed and left me scratching my head and reaching for more; the desire to hold onto a life that is flying by too quickly, yet unable to do so; and, in many ways, realizing that I have never truly grieved losses the way they were meant to be grieved.  Ever feel that way?  Maybe, it’s just an “old lady” thing...

Yet, in spite of all the regret, HE LOVES ME.  What really matters is that one Christmas, so many years ago, heaven met earth in an unforeseen kiss  to remind us all that this is the most important truth I will ever need in this life.  Here in the midst of nostalgia (Christmas really brings that out in me), the Lord is nudging me to let go, lay them down, and to accept those things that cannot be changed; to live in the strength and power of the Holy Spirit deep inside, courageously changing what can be changed; and continuing to seek his plan, not mine, HIS...and, then, to move forward.

C.S. Lewis once said, “There are far better things ahead, than any we leave behind.”  After all, we are all marching steadily toward eternity, where we’ll receive face to face the kiss of heaven.  No, I don’t have time to maintain regret – for the past is a trap, but there’s always freedom to be found in discovering the “what next” of God.

I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Phil 3:13-14).

Come back tomorrow, for a special Christmas Day pondering, but in the meantime MERRY CHRISTMAS!  Enjoy your Jesus, and may heaven meet you here on earth, and touch you intimately.