Preparing for Christmas

Preparations for Christmas began really late this year, I suppose because I was in London for so long. So the tree went up late, the presents were bought hurriedly, the menu is not really decided yet... I feel the usual anxieties creeping up on me as I think about the annual Christams family dinner.

But yesterday while I was attending a workshop, (my mind only half on what was being said, because I was mentally going over all that was still left undone), a thought came to me - why was I stressed and anxious about celebrating the birth of my God? Christmas is when God's love came down. Christmas is about God putting me above Himself.

So I prayed and decided that I will stop obsessing about what to cook, what to buy, most important of all, what people will think... I will celebrate Christ. So I began to think how we can celebrate Christmas so that our Saviour's birth will be manifested to the people who come to our home for Christmas. This is what came to mind -

A Christ-honouring Christmas dinner would

• welcome guests into a warm and loving home
• bless the guests with joy and laughter
• affirm the guests

My goal shall be to make Christmas seem different from all other festivals. Because Christmas is different! Because Christians have a DIFFERENT ATTITUDE! So we will celebrate Christ-mas in a way that makes the guests wonder why this day is different! We will make it a day guests look forward to. We will be generous, joyful, loving and radiate God's love - no matter what!!!

Giving Thanks

Today another child was added to my Father's Household. Maya accepted Christ today and it gives me great joy. It is a prayer answered, it is a jigsaw that fell into place, a promise kept. What is it that makes me word-less at those times that my heart is full of joy? It has been a struggle, there has been so much pain, yet I have known with such surety in my heart from the first time I prayed that God was going to come into this home and build it again. The verse that God gave me then was that this home was built on sand and nothing that was not built on God the Rock can stand. And that has been my prayer - that God will re-build this household on the Rock, that He will be the centre of all relationships here. How many times I have doubted You, Father. How many times it seemed like the end? How many times did I ask - did I hear God right? But You are faithful and what You promised has come to pass and I stand in awe of You.

And I know the battle will begin. But You will triumph. For You alone are God.