Guest Mckenzie Sletmoe

What does Christmas mean to me?

That was the question I was asking myself when I was asked to do this post. I thought about happy memory's and sad memory's, but I still didn't have a topic to right about. Then I prayed and asked God "What do you want me to write about?".

As always he gave me an answer, last Sunday on December 11, 2016, I got this card before the service: 

 

 

And it made me change my question, instead of What does Christmas mean to me? It became What does Joy mean to me?Because the root of Christmas is Joy. So I was thinking and I couldn't seem to write how it felt in words and then suddenly it came to me from a scene in a story that C.S Lewis wrote called Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I'm going to paraphrase the scene because it's really long, but basically what happens is that Prince Caspian, Princess Lucy, Prince Edmund, and their cousin Eustace are on a voyage and they sail through a dark mist. They find a castaway who tells them that the fog its self is an island of nightmares. Then it happens, everyone's nightmares are coming to life. Everyone on the ship is screaming in fright, Princess Lucy is in the crows nest and she calls out to Aslan for help. Suddenly out on the bow they all see a great light that is hanging around the neck of a great albatross. It circles around the crows nest and with a loud screech it flys off being a beacon of light for them to follow. When it circled around the crows nest and screeched, it said words that only Lucy could hear. It said " Courage, dear heart" and in that moment as the reader I got a sense of calm,peace, a feeling that every things going to be all right. That is what Joy means to me and that is the Joy Jesus came to earth as a baby to die on the cross. So that everyone can have that kind of joy.

Joys twin

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As I set here,listening to Alabama Christmas, its much different than even a year ago. I look out the window, the sun is brightly shining. Rather than several inches of snow coming down, its sunny.We are not having a Christmas program shut down for second Sunday in a row, We will be presenting our third evening of Journey to Bethlehem.  Something about the songs I am listening to reminds me of good times with friends and family in times past. This music takes me back to when I was a child. About 13 years ago, I was very homesick. A brother preached a sermon on the Joy of Christmas. He said you may not get what you want for Christmas. You may not have money or means to get or do what you want.  But don't loose the joy to be found in Christmas. I realized I needed to give God my homesickness.  I need to gift the baby Jesus with what I was troubled by.  I needed Jesus take my burden to be able to find that Joy.  As I surrendered that heartache, I discovered a joy that replaced the homesickness.

Since then, I have had to say good bye to many. Sometimes just for short times,sometimes as I watch them cross over to their eternal home. I knew I would see them again. Sometimes, I have had to say good bye but yet knowing a phone call or card is there to give and receive.

I can look back and see how each person that I have crossed my life have left their fingerprints on me.  People who will have forever changed me.  Friendships that remain a part of me.  Those friends, that you pick up the phone,its like your just across town.   And nothing has changed.... The love and memories are still there. The concern for each other is still there.

May God bless you this year with his love and joy