Today is Christmas. Most importantly it is the day in which many people celebrate the first advent of Jesus Christ. For most of us it also is a time to celebrate family and be with our loved ones. It is no different for me.
This morning I am watching Fox and Friends on the Fox News Channel. They just showed a video package that really pulled on my heart and caused this bearded boy to cry. It was a video of families greeting their loved ones. Loved ones who have been away from their families in a far away land for a long time. These men and women who were welcomed home for Christmas by their husbands, wives, kids, and other loved ones are members of the United States Armed Forces.
These folks are just like you and I, except they have committed their time and their lives to establishing, protecting, and defending freedom at home and abroad, even on Christmas Day. Some of these are men and women who have not seen those they love for a long time. Instead of gift-wrapped presents, they have and will receive bullets fired at them and mortars raining down around them during this time when we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace.
Some have been busy defending freedom and liberty instead of celebrating the birth of a child they have never seen or instead of mourning a family member who has passed on while they are away. Some have been establishing a political culture of democracy in the Middle East while their wive struggle with not having a husband around to fulfill the role of a husband and their kids struggle with remembering what it feels like to have daddy at home, giving them a hug, and tucking them into bed every night.
My prayer for Christmas is this:
Lord God - I thank You for Your love and Your grace. I thank You for the gift of your Son, Who set aside His glorious life in Heaven so that He might come to earth, bring glory to You, and to make permanent atonement for those who You chose before the foundation of the world.
As all good things flow from You, I also thank You for the opportunity to be with my family on this day. However, there are those who are unable to be with their loved ones for various reasons during this Christmas season. I ask that You would be their comfort in this difficult time and that You will allow them to be with their families again. Most of all, I recognize that You are the Sovereign Ruler over all of creation and that nothing happens outside of Your direction and/or permission, and with that recognition I ask that Your will be done and that everything that ever happens will bring glory to You in the end.
Once again, I thank You for everything that is, was, and will be. I love You and I look forward to the day when I can spend Christmas Day with You in Your presence. I say and ask these things in the most beautiful name of Jesus...Amen.
As for those of you who are reading, have Merry Christmas and Soli Deo Gloria!
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2 comments:
God Bless the Troops! My friend Devin from school is in the Army and is in Iraq. He posted pictures the other day on his Facebook of their Christmas party they had over in Iraq and he also said in his update that it was nice to take time out for a little Christmas get together. It made me feel good and a little sad to see the photos, but all in all they looked like they were enjoying themselves during a time when they can't be with their families.
Amen!
Happy New Year, H.
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