Monday, December 24, 2012

What Christmas Is Really About

"How will we feel when the great shadow departs forever?  How will we feel when everything happy comes true, and everything sad comes untrue?  We will feel, perhaps, like it couldn't get any better than that.  But each new day will prove us wrong." 

This is the ending quote of chapter 28 in the book If God Is Good...Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil.  I read it and felt deep abiding joy surface and expand in my chest as I thought about it.  Can we even imagine how wonderfully exciting eternity with God is going to be?  I think not.  We are so finite in our thought processes that we can only grasp a miniscule amount of understanding and yet that is enough to make our hearts want to explode in ecstasy!!  My heart beats faster and faster until I have no choice but to jump up and shout my love for God!!  He is so wonderful that there are many a time when I have to say, "Enough!  I cannot take in more or I will burst!!"
While it may seem that it would be fantastic to know everything, isn't the joy of exploration, experiment and discovery even more enjoyable?  Look into the eyes of a young child as they watch a simple candy cane dissolve in hot chocolate.
Yesterday, during Sunday School, my sister-in-law, Susie, gave her class hot chocolate and a candy cane with which to stir it.  I had just dismissed my class and walked in to hers where they had just finished up.  My grandson Lincoln looked at me, grinned from ear to ear and grabbed his cup.  He pulled out the candy cane and practically shouted, "Look Gramma!"  He was amazed that the candy cane was a skinny stub at the bottom where it had been in the hot chocolate.  I just looked at his adorable 7 year old face and smiled.  That simple experience of learning brought him such joy that it exuded over to me when he showed me!  This is what it will be like every day for all eternity!!  A constant exploring adventure where we will learn and expand in thought process.  There will forever be more to do and learn about and experience and each activity will simply make us love God and each other more!  Can we imagine this?  Not fully, but we can practice.  Practice always brings greater achievement, though it doesn't bring perfection here on this earth, even though it is said to.  There is always room for more and always will be!!  That excites me more than I can express.
God made us to learn, to experience and to achieve.  He placed the desire in us to always do and be better.  Sometimes we give up here, because the improvement is negligible, but when our senses and our bodies are made perfect, nothing will be negligible to us ever again.  We will sense it all, every minute learning experience will be heightened to the extent of bringing us great joy, peace, love and faith.  That is how much we are loved!  Rejoice - for Christ has come and is coming again!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

No comments:

Post a Comment