Thank You Dear Heavenly Father for sending your Son, Jesus, because of your great love for the world. On this Christmas Day, as we celebrate with the giving and receiving of gifts surrounded by family and friends, may we celebrate first the birth of Your Son, the greatest gift that has ever been or ever will be given.

Happy Birthday, Jesus.

Jesus, I love you.

Christmas Blessings to you and yours,

I know I need to post the meaning of a few more of our Christmas decorations, and I will try to do that in the next day or two. I’m not making any promises, though. It may not be until after Christmas (gasp!), but it’s still the Christmas season until January 6th, right?

Anyway, I only have a quick minute and wanted to share this with you. Today has been a really rough day for me; well, at least it started out that way. I have been under the weather with a cold, and it has been getting worse the last few days instead of getting better. I slept in a bit this morning and didn’t get to have my quiet time with the Lord before the hustle and bustle of the day began. Not a good way to begin.

I tried to take about 30 minutes for myself to read and study my devotion after my husband had left for work but between the sound of the Wii, and the phone ringing, it didn’t go so well. This is why I try to have my quiet time in the morning before everyone else wakes up.

I just couldn’t shake the horrible gloominess I was feeling today. So down in the dumps was I that I found myself constantly on the verge of tears and irritable to boot. My daughter was so thrilled about wrapping presents (no, I’m not done), and all I wanted to do was lay down on the sofa and take a nap!

My mother-in-law came by and took my daughter, and as I sat down to eat a sandwich for lunch, I sat there praying and asking God to help me get out of my funk. I told Him I knew that I had much to be joyful about, not the least of which was the “reason for the season,” His Son, and that I didn’t like feeling this way. Could He please help me? He answered, and this is what He gave me.

The Gift

He came to earth
A helpless babe
Wrapped in cloths
In a manger lay.

Born of a virgin
Child so dear
Shepherds were told
The Savior is here.

Wise men came
With gifts from afar
Following in darkness
Bethlehem’s star.

A child had been born
God’s only Son
The promised Messiah
He was the One.

The lowing of cattle
A mother’s soft sigh
Come let us worship him
God Most High.

Rejected by His own
Accepted by some
Many could not believe
He was God’s Son.

Two thousand plus years
The story lives on
Believers still praise Him
In word and in song.

A lowly Carpenter
Born to save us all
From sin that began
With Adam’s fall.

His gift is salvation
Offered for free
The gift is for you
The gift is for me.

Remember the Babe
As your presents you give
He had to die
So that we could live.

As I finished the poem and reread it, tears formed in my eyes, and I fell on my knees in worship. God had restored to me the joy of my salvation, and I couldn’t help but fall down in thankfulness for the Gift of His Son.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for coming to save me.

May you worship Him today as well.

Christmas Blessings,

I received an email today from a trusted friend regarding an article that had been run about a young boy here in North Carolina who has been suffering from neuroblastoma, an incurable form of cancer often occurring in young children, since 2005. The doctors have said there is nothing else they can do for him.

He told his father his request for Christmas is that people would send him cards.

Now I realize that we all have probably received emails about sick children before. However, I went to the website of the newspaper that ran the article, and I believe this to be legitimate. You can read the article for yourself here. One commenter on the site actually suggested this may be a spoof, and the editor of the online paper came back and stated that sadly it was in fact true.

The little boy’s name is Damien Hammonds. His address is 409 Burns Road, Lumberton, NC 28358. I took this information straight from the online article.

Would you please consider sending a card along with your prayers to this young boy? We are the body of Christ, and as such, this is one way to be His hands and feet to those in need of His touch.

Thank you, and

Christmas Blessings,