Anticipation comes before the babe comes. The real work happens after birth. And after His birth the world is poised for something that will change everything! From the law to grace comes a child. From someplace utterly holy He arrives and in His mother’s arms He grows.
Anticipation comes before Christmas. There can be a tremendous rush of things to do, things to be done and things that fall in between. We are poised for a day full of expectations, traditions and not always joy.
After Christmas comes one of two things – a breath of thankful relief or a post-holiday hangover.
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Whether it’s a relationship, a dream, or an activity you’ve enjoyed, letting go is hard. I’m having to let go of a lot in this new year and it’s been really hard. I ruminate about it, get angry, and depressed. Maybe you can relate.
The psychologist in me has a lot of solutions for my letting go woes. But my experience has been that while psychology can offer us tools, the Word of God is what powers them. Here’s the Bible’s How To for letting go:
Mourn
John 11:35 tells us Jesus wept. That’s important.
When I was in clinical practice, I saw many people who felt it wasn’t appropriate to mourn their loss.
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Every year at this time I do one of two things: weep at the loss of what was, or breathe a huge sigh of relief knowing that I get to start with a fresh slate.
As the New Year approached, my head began to spin with what I should be doing as far as setting goals for the coming year. Should I make resolutions? Pick a One Word or scripture focus? Start a new diet? Join a Facebook accountability group? All of these are good and often necessary things that will help to keep one focused throughout the year. In past years, I would be ridden with guilt and a sense of failure if I didn’t make good on a commitment.
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The empty squares soothe me and I’m tempted to leave them that way. For this new calendar is so crisp and clean. And last year’s calendar is so…messy and cluttered…
But then I flip through the old pages and see scrawlings that make me smile wide. A miraculous birth. My son’s first tooth lost. My first speaking engagement. And all the memories of travels and friends/family visiting…they are worth noting.
With each New Year, I reflect on notations I made the year previous. Ones I jotted in my calendar, my thanks journal, and in the margins of my Bible. They help me determine if this path I’m on is bringing me closer to Home.
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“Hope – Smiles from the threshold of the year to come,
Whispering ‘it will be happier’…”
~ Alfred Tennyson
My word for the year at Counting My Blessings is – Celebrate.
Turn on the news and you’ll be bombarded with more negativity than a brain should have to process.
I’m still not sure that 24/7 information is good for our mental health.
I’d consider giving it all up and going back to much simpler times if I didn’t love:
heat
air conditioning
indoor plumbing
electric lights
and
refrigeration.
But, I’m sure you get what I mean.
I’m craving fun!
I don’t want to pack away the smiles with the Christmas decorations.
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Limbo- an uncertain period of awaiting a decision or resolution; an intermediate state or condition.
I’ll be honest, I am not one who likes to wait. I’ll make the leap and say, you don’t like waiting either. I am pretty sure, the majority of us, don’t love waiting. Why do you think that is?
One reason may be that we live in days of pro-active planning . We have the luxury, time and means to plan our days fairly well. The question is, what do we do when we are called to wait? What is our response in waiting?
Seasons of waiting are not often easy.
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This post began as some thoughts I jotted down last year when my husband was a thousand miles away starting a new job (for which we were very thankful) and we had moved out of our house and were staying in a friend’s guest quarters. And here we are, a year later, heading toward another Christmas that isn’t what I’d hoped or planned. Maybe you can relate:
It’s safe to say we’ve never had a Christmas like this one. My husband left to start his new job one thousand miles away. He’ll come back and we’ll end our year loading the rest of our belongings onto a truck.
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Fifteen years ago on Christmas Eve, the birth of my oldest son changed my life. All that God’s Word says about God as Father and me as His child became more real to me that day. Becoming a parent amplified my understanding of how God the Father feels about me as His child.
“But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12)
Three years ago on December 15th, our youngest son became an official member of our family after joining it about a year before then. All that God’s Word says about my adoption into God’s family became more real to me that day.
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