What does Christmas mean to me?
That was the question I was asking myself this Christmas.
I thought about happy memories and sad memories,
but I still didn't have what I was looking for.
Then I prayed and asked God "Show me something this Christmas".
I thought about happy memories and sad memories,
but I still didn't have what I was looking for.
Then I prayed and asked God "Show me something this Christmas".
As always he gave me an answer. He reminded me that on December 11, 2016, I got a card from my papa that said: “What does joy mean to me?"
And it made me change my question from 'What does Christmas mean to me?'
to 'What does Joy mean to me?'
to 'What does Joy mean to me?'
I realized that the root of Christmas is Joy.
I wanted to write down my find and share it with you all, but I didn't know how to write it down. Then suddenly it came to me, a scene in a story that C.S Lewis wrote called Voyage of the Dawn Treader was perfect. I'm going to paraphrase the scene because it's really long.
Basically what happens is that Prince Caspian, Lucy, Edmund, and their cousin Eustace are on a voyage. They see this dark fog and they must sail their boat through it.
However, once they get inside the dark fog it gets worse, they find a castaway who tells them that the fog is an island of nightmares. Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire! So they try to turn around but it is so pitch black they can't see in front of them, they can't see behind them, they can't even see on either side of them. It's so dark that they can't see their hand in front of their face.
Then it happens, everyone's nightmares are coming to life. Lucy is in the crows nest afraid to run to her friends for fear they might turn in to her worst nightmare. Everyone on the ship is screaming in fright, Lucy knows the only way to save everyone and herself is to call on the only one who can save them.
So desperately she calls into the wind calls to Aslan for help. Suddenly they see a speck of light. Which turns into a fingerprint, then a beam. Then suddenly out on the bow, they all see the great light is hanging around the neck of a great albatross. It circles around the crows nest and with a loud screech it flies off,
being a beacon of light for them to follow out of the island.
When it circled around the crows nest, no one understood its cry it except Lucy,
who heard It say, " Courage, dear heart".
At that moment as the reader, I always get a sense of calm...peace...a feeling that everything's going to be alright.
That is what Joy means to me. that is the Joy Jesus came to earth as a baby to give to us.
I wanted to write down my find and share it with you all, but I didn't know how to write it down. Then suddenly it came to me, a scene in a story that C.S Lewis wrote called Voyage of the Dawn Treader was perfect. I'm going to paraphrase the scene because it's really long.
Basically what happens is that Prince Caspian, Lucy, Edmund, and their cousin Eustace are on a voyage. They see this dark fog and they must sail their boat through it.
However, once they get inside the dark fog it gets worse, they find a castaway who tells them that the fog is an island of nightmares. Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire! So they try to turn around but it is so pitch black they can't see in front of them, they can't see behind them, they can't even see on either side of them. It's so dark that they can't see their hand in front of their face.
Then it happens, everyone's nightmares are coming to life. Lucy is in the crows nest afraid to run to her friends for fear they might turn in to her worst nightmare. Everyone on the ship is screaming in fright, Lucy knows the only way to save everyone and herself is to call on the only one who can save them.
So desperately she calls into the wind calls to Aslan for help. Suddenly they see a speck of light. Which turns into a fingerprint, then a beam. Then suddenly out on the bow, they all see the great light is hanging around the neck of a great albatross. It circles around the crows nest and with a loud screech it flies off,
being a beacon of light for them to follow out of the island.
When it circled around the crows nest, no one understood its cry it except Lucy,
who heard It say, " Courage, dear heart".
At that moment as the reader, I always get a sense of calm...peace...a feeling that everything's going to be alright.
That is what Joy means to me. that is the Joy Jesus came to earth as a baby to give to us.
We were all in our own island of nightmares, sometimes trying to deal with them ourselves,
but on Christmas day we saw a speck of hope.
Which then turned into a fingerprint when he started preaching.
But the day He died was the day He flew out on our bow to help us see our way out of the nightmare island.
Just how everyone on the ship didn't understand the albatross when it called, except Lucy, the same is right now. People don't understand that Jesus wanted to die for us.
But those of us who are redeemed by the blood of Jesus can hear Him say
“Courage dear heart, I will help you through!”.
But those of us who are redeemed by the blood of Jesus can hear Him say
“Courage dear heart, I will help you through!”.
That's what Joy means to me...
Merry, Joyful Christmas,
McKenzie
Merry, Joyful Christmas,
McKenzie
No comments:
Post a Comment
I would love to hear from you!
Heidi