Christmas reflections

Hi all..
I had two things that just struck me within the last two days and I wanted to share them with you since they are about Christmas and the latter also has to do with chanukah as well.

Wreath: door decor or adornment for a king?
I was looking at some Christmas cards yesterday, trying to pick out just the right one for a special friend and I stumbled upon one that was made by unicef. It was an artfully painted wreath that appeared to almost be blood stained in color though I'm sure it was meant to be cranberry, and it was crafted in a way that made it look not quite so tidy and neat, but instead rather natural and ruff hewn. It struck me that the wreath was more like a crown of thorns, the same crown of thorns that was placed on Jesus head as people mocked him as the king of the Jews, when in fact that is who He is. He is the messiah, the Christ, the Son of God. That is the truth and I thought about how displaying a wreath that is made more from twisted branches and stained the color of cranberry evokes the truth about the sacrifice that Christ made for us by dying on that cross. But it all had to begin with a birth, a miraculous birth, one that everyone probably thought was a hoax, but the angel appeared and three kings came from a far distance to worship a baby and that baby was Yeshua, Jesus who would have to die on a cross for our sin. The wreath that I saw on the box (at Julie's hallmark incidentally) reminded me of the sacrifice that Christ made to become a mere man and walk on this earth and deal with all of the suffering and troubles that we all have and yet not even have one unholy thought but then to die the most awful kind of death by being nailed to a cross with a crown of thorns being crushed onto his head as he bled for us. I'll never look at wreath the same way again, and every time I put it on my doorway I do it as an act of worship to say that I believe Jesus is who He says He is and he died, with that crown of thorns upon his head for me and all of humanity.

The burden of light....
"My yoke is easy and my burden is light" Mt 11:30
Okay, it's true that this life has challenges, it has suffering, it has difficulty and is heavy sometimes. I was thinking about how when we cast all of our cares on Christ it's so much easier for us becuase we're relying on him so we can't worry or be anxious. Beyond this, however is the idea that our burden as individuals that do have a relationship with Christ is a burden of light. It's almost oxymoronical. I mean a burden is supposed to be heavy, yet light is virtually weightless (unless you want to argue that light is a photon and not a wave but it behaves like both). So our burden-so to speak -is to share the light. What is the light? jesus is the light of the world. He is the Shammah in the middle of the menorah that is the one light that is designated to give his light to all of the other candles. Each night adding one more...so each day, whatever we do, our burden is to be that light that Jesus has lit so that all can see the beauty the holiness the majesty the intimacy the sweetness of Christ living in us and showing that God is who he says he is. Let us be people of the light, sharing it wherever we go: in the grocery store, at the gas pump, driving down the street, in doctor's offices, on the telephone. May our overarching burden be light...Jesus is the light of the world who came so that all might have life and have it more abundantly. He is the reason for Christmas and the reason that I live and breathe and have the ispiration to write this blog. He is real and his light extends to all that will be lit...will you?

Let us shine for Christ showing His love to others in this season. I have been awed by the love you have shown to me and I pray that the true meaning of Christmas would be known deeply to all of us so that we could live it regularly.

With deep love and gratitude to you all,
Merry Christ mas
Julie