I love getting Christmas letters, even from close friends whose lives I’m already very familiar with. It is just a fun privilege to read people’s reflective summary of their family and life in their own words. I know, I know, sometimes they can come across braggadocios, sometimes boring, sometimes just a little weird, but usually these things are over looked when the Lord graces us with blessed self-forgetfulness both when we read them and write them. One particular letter we enjoyed this year was the kind where the writer was obviously intent on encouraging others to trust in the Lord’s strength. They are a family of 8; 2 of the kids have been in their care for over 2 years and are finally nearing the end of the adoption process. It has not been easy. The following excerpt is from that letter:
And my dear, saintly wife is being renewed every day by the Lord’s mercies. … I would say she is working tirelessly, but she does get tired; with perfect patience, but she does get impatient at times; and without growing weary, but the day-to- day plodding along does lead to weariness. She is, however, trusting the Lord more and setting an amazing example for me and my children of leaning not on her own understanding and relying on the power of the Holy Spirit to get the job done. …
I found this snippet so encouraging, I just couldn’t keep it to myself. It is the true spirit of Christmas. God came to man as a man. He willingly subjected his body to weariness, his heart to sadness and suffering, and his perfect nature to temptation, yet remained without sin. The only one with the sole right to infinite exultation, humbled himself, to adopt us, to pluck us out of our hopeless state, and set us in his own family. Christmas is a good time to remember our own costly adoptions. With eyes now open to see, let us exult the one who humiliated himself to the point of a cursed death (the death that we deserved) in order to bring us to God. There is no better gift than a home with the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Merry Christmas!
Talking Wall 