Lessons

"What's your promise?" I said to my daughter as I peered over her shoulder to look at the promise card she was given. What's a promise? Something you vow to someone? Evidently I take it for granted that God vows to do something for me at the start of the new year. The fact is He speaks all year round. But He chooses to honour the eagerness and anticipation around this time and I choose to wait at His feet with extra caution. Almost like the little child who tries to avoid being naughty especially around Christmas time.  It amazes me how the promises of God are always eternal. Take for instance the verse from Genesis 28:15 "Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” Genesis 28:15 NKJV https://bible.com/bible/114/gen.28.15.NKJV To me, it sounds like a lover's pledge. But the thing is, what has He spoken to me. For one , it is &

After Christmas Yesterday, I read from Matthew second chapter to my children before they went to sleep. When I finished, my daughter said, "I think God saved the entire family when He sent Jesus away to Egypt." It gave me the jitters to think of the next question they would ask me, " if God saved Jesus from Herod, why didn't he save all the children?" The first Christmas was a promise of hope, joy, peace and love. But horror lurked just around the corner. Who knew? God did. He even foretold this misery. The Messiah was to be born into this chaos and grief. Not afterwards nor before that. Grief turns severe during Christmas. New year leaves not much to hope for at homes that have lost loved ones. But Christmas comes nevertheless. Just like kept promises, Christmas comes and with it comes the challenge to love beyond the grief.  I don't know the answer to why children die - be it in mass shootings or bizzare accidents. But what I do know is this. T

It's Christmas! At the crack of dawn, I will get ready to go to church. So will my kids. It has never been a time for presents or for a gathering under the tree. Our home looks just the same inside as it did all year through. But the gentle skip in the heart every time my kids heard the word Christmas was almost tangible. Christmas is good tidings of great joy. Clearly it isn't the colours, the decorations or even the carols that make it special. It is a celebration of life as God saw it! Eternal, sacrificial, abundant, peaceful and joyful. "Christmas is our festival because we are Christians" my daughter said recently. But on that first Christmas dawn, the shepherds heard the angel sing a different tune. He said, "to all mankind." Christmas is Christmas for all! It seems it doesn't depend on what one believes. It is like the earth was round even when every soul upon it thought it was flat. The same way, the Messiah came even though His own did not