One of the questions posed for us to consider at our Christmas gathering last night was "how has Christ's poverty made you rich?"
It is a puzzling question posed by someone who's been following the Christ-Child hard for many, many years.
Though I cannot fully grasp a clear answer, an explanation's been turning in my head for awhile....
There's something about knowing He, the Maker of All, came as an infant to a poor girl and her fiance. There's something about knowing that throughout His life He had no place to call home, no just-right pillow for His head. I mean, even I have a pillow I prefer to sleep on.
There's something about knowing He didn't have much, materially, to speak of. Of knowing that what He did have, power from God, He shared generously to all who sought Him, and even gave of His power, prayers, and words to those who weren't seeking Him.
It's a plumb line for me. Truly, one of the few things that keeps me from despairing at times. For though we lack nothing, God has chosen to place us in a position of constant reliance upon Him. (And isn't that what He wants for us all???)
So in those moments when I get tired of being dependent upon Him, times when I wish I just didn't have to think about budgets and bargains, He is my plumb line.
Each time I am brought back to reality. The God I worship and follow; His riches are not of this world. He calls me to remember that where my treasure is, there my heart will be also.
He reminds me of the riches already mine....grace, mercy, peace, redemption, adoption as His child, forgiveness of sins, the Holy Spirit, an inheritance kept in heaven which will never spoil or fade....
How has His poverty made me rich? Oh, let me count the ways....for the riches of Christ, made mine through His poverty, are worth more than all the man-made riches in the world.
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| This was their first pick...it wasn't the price of the tree that bothered us, it was the price of the new home we'd have to buy to put it in!!! |
#221-243
*Picking out a Christmas tree in the cold...Oldest boy now helping to carry it.
*Patience with the lights
*Popcorn strings and snacks hanging low for Timmy whenever he needs
*Christmas Carols
*Cutie Oranges
*Good Christmas stories
*Generous and insightful babysitters
*A faithful husband
*A faithful God
*Home Economics with Aunt Heidi and Eli
*Learning of Washington, D.C.
*Little ballet dancers in red
*How she just won't cooperate in taking a picture
*Patter of feet in the hallway
*Late night water calls
*Shirtless baby hanging ornaments for the first time...all on the low branches
*Receiving Christmas cards in the mail
*Visits from friends from afar
*Gifts for giving
*Timmy scrubbing his scribbled crayon off the floor
*Advent evenings together
riches taken from Ephesians 1, photos: this Christmas season
