Christmas 2007 has come and gone.  Did it live up to your expectations?  Did you receive everything you wanted from Christmas?  I wanted world peace and it didn’t happen.  On a more realistic level I really wanted my children, spouses, and grandson to be together.  The tangible gift that I was asking for was a photo portrait of the entire family. 

It didn’t happen.  Our daughter was not feeling well and didn’t make the trip to Portland, Oregon from Falls Church, Virginia.  To say the least I was disappointed. 

I would dare to say that many people had a less than perfect Christmas.  So what is the real meaning of Christmas?  Why do we set aside this time every year and make it special?  Perhaps a less than perfect Christmas drives us back to its original purpose?  We celebrate the birth of our Messiah in a humble barn to a humble family.  The surroundings would be less than what one would expect.  To our earthly eyes the first Christmas was not a perfect Christmas.  A king is born and it doesn’t happen in a palace.  Jesus entered the world in the lowest of circumstances.  How disappointing. 

I pray that your disappointments end in hope.  Christ’s beginning in no way signifies His end.  Someday every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord.

Christmas is about the Christ, the one who came to take away the sin of the world.  We get confused and think it is about us.  We do get to partake in the celebration.  Every Christmas is a perfect Christmas if we celebrate His birth.

It seems to me people who are not Christians should not be able to celebrate His birth.  Yet the whole world celebrates it without knowing why.  What are they really celebrating?  They have hope that someday there will be a perfect Christmas.  They just don’t know what that is yet.

My life and plans were interrupted by an ice storm.  What was going to be a very busy day turned into an at home day.  Suzanne and I spread ice melt on the neighborhood entry and came back inside to enjoy coffee and hot chocolate.  We have to take the weather God gives us.  Spending the day with Suzanne listening to music, reading, notifying every one of changed plans, is not so bad.  Our lives are so busy at times God calls time out and gives us time.

I look outside my window and see a winter wonderland.  Branches covered with ice, cardinals bringing in just the right amount of color.  What a beautiful picture God has painted.  Suzanne had made banana muffins and re-warming them once again fills the house with a great aroma that just makes everything seem better.

An ice day gives me opportunities to write a blog.  I was looking forward to the original plans for the day as we were preparing to host the winter team meeting for all the BCM Directors in the state.  Now that is postponed and we are left with a day to stay inside.  Usually I have limits on my quiet time.  Today there were none.  Generally I would hurry off the campus.  Today there is no hurry.  Most of the time there is pressure to accomplish something.  Today no pressure. 

God has taken a bad day and made it a good one.  It is how God works many times.  Into the darkest of circumstances God brings light.  I pray that God will give to everyone who reads this a bright day no matter how dark it is.