Christmas 2011

CHRISTMAS: OUT WITH THE OLD

ISAIAH 43:19-21  

Anyone else ever feel a little blue around Christmas. It's not that I am overcome with sadness. It's just things are changing...and I am not comfortable yet with the shift. Transition, change always brings about mixed emotions and it seems like the last 15 yrs have been nothing less than a roller coaster. This is our first Christmas where my husband and I actually feel like empty nesters. I had a hard time even getting in the mood to decorate. Our home is oddly quiet. It's the first year that we did not have a child to help us pick out a real tree (our granddaughter has gone with us since about 2yrs-3yrs old she is now 8yrs) and it's the second time in our married life (35 yrs of marriage) that we have had an artificial tree. I am missing the sound of children...I am missing the 'family' feel. We are no longer the focal point. I think about big families...and how it was when I was growing up...aunts, uncles, cousins, moms, dads, babies, children...the sounds, the food and the fun. I miss my granddaughter, and barely know my other granddaughter...and I have two step grandchildren...soon. I miss my son in the Navy. You should have heard me cry and grieve when our son went to the Navy about three years ago. With change often comes grief, and learning to do new things and learning to let go, learning to forgive, learning to cope with health issues and life issues, learning that I can't control everything that happens to me or my children or loved ones, but I can learn to let go and let God mold me, shape me, and keep my heart from becoming bitter and old and hard. So, even at this time when I'm feelin' a bit blue...I'm also feeling an expectation and a hope. This I know from experience: I CAN trust God my future is secure in Him. He's never failed me even in my weakest moment or lowest point. So, I am pressing on and pressing forward...accepting change and learning to embrace life to the fullest, looking forward to what God has for me in the future, letting go of the past, it's disappointments, it's sorrows and pains and unmet expectations...and like this song says...it's a new season, it's a new day...a fresh anointing is flowing my way, it's a season of power and prosperity, it's a new season coming to me. I've been tried by the 'fire' and I'm coming out...I have just begun..the best is yet to come!

Isahiah 43:19-21
19 See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
20 The wild animals honor me,
the jackals and the owls,
because I provide water in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland,
to give drink to my people, my chosen,
21 the people I formed for myself
that they may proclaim my praise.