I’d planned much more for this month, but the flu waylaid me for two weeks. Consequently, all the things I’d planned to accomplish by now are not going to get done. So here are just a couple of insights that came out of my illness.
With little energy for anything else, I had lots of time to think. This may be the best Christmas ever. Why? Because I truly had time to think about what Christmas means without all the distracting noise and activities.
Sometimes thoughts enter my head that are so random, I wonder where they came from. I’m learning to recognize them as promptings of the Holy Spirit. In the worst of my illness, when I was coughing my lungs out in the middle of the night, I thought of the old Casting Crowns song, “Praise You in the Storm.” I haven’t heard that song in years. Why now? I believe God was reminding me to praise Him in the midst of my difficulty. Not for the difficulty, or because of it, but right there in the middle of it. Because He deserves praise no matter what’s happening around us. That’s why Paul and Silas were able to sing hymns while chained in a dank Roman prison. When we choose to praise Him in the midst of trouble, it takes our mind off our affliction, at least temporarily, and makes it easier to cope. I made a conscious effort to praise God when I was feeling awful. I admit there wasn’t much else to do, but it pleased God and lifted my spirits.
I also pondered God’s attention to those who are sick and feeling useless, unimportant, insignificant, left out. He sees the ones others overlook or intentionally ignore. Think of Gideon and David. The blind beggar. The Samaritan woman. The ten lepers. The demoniac.
God sent his son to a common peasant girl in a backwoods town, to be born in a nondescript cave where animals sheltered. Because God identifies with the lowly, the powerless, the insignificant. He saw me in my weakness and my isolation. I wasn’t alone. When tempted to self-pity, I remembered that He knew and He cared.
This Christmas, I hope you too will know how deeply God loves and cares for you. He planned your days long before you were born, knows where you’re going and where you’ve been, and doesn’t think you’re insignificant or unimportant at all. After all, He sent you the greatest gift He could think of. Not wrapped in pretty paper or fancy decorations. But His only son, wrapped in simple cloths in a manger so we could identify with him. So He could identify with us.
May the peace and joy of our Lord Jesus Christ fill you and your loved ones this Christmas and in the coming year.
