"Turning Loose of Things Left Behind"
December of 1981: Two weeks before Christmas our family pulled out of the drive way of our house next to the church where Dennis served as minister of youth and activities. It was time to move to our new church as the pastor's family. We sold our home the year before so that we could be freed up to go out 'not knowing', as did Abraham and Sarah.
"It's a small house and a small church, but we can do it." Words uttered by Dennis echoed in my mind. There were moments when I believed that and other moments when I wasn't so sure.
Moving and changing schools for our boys two weeks before Christmas created challenges not dealt with prior to that experience. At first I thought, "This won't be too hard. We've moved before." But it was hard. I will never forget leaving them at John C. Calhoun Elementary School that chilly December day. David was twelve; Todd, nine.
Another challenge included downsizing into that small dwelling next to the church. How do you pastor a church, anyway? What is the role of the pastor's wife? Will the boys find good Christian friends and adapt to a new school? How would we afford Christmas? All of these questions kept me in a quandary.
We loaded the van and two cars. The boys went with Dennis and I followed, loaded to the hilt. As I glanced behind me, there sat Oliver, our Old English sheepdog, panting at me from his perch amid the odds and ends in the back seat of the car. I found to my horror that my fingers, white knuckled, gripped the steering wheel as tightly as I gripped the 'things' I thought I had yielded to the Lord long ago.
"Release my fingers, Lord, from this death grip on all the stuff I'm leaving behind: my job, my home, my friends, my church, my former life. Help me to release my grasp. It's only seventy-five miles." I prayed.
The Lord did help me to let go just as He's helped me to let go so many times since that Christmas twenty eight years ago.
Mary and Joseph left everything behind, also, as they traveled on their traumatic trip so long ago. Not only did they leave everything behind, but Jesus left all when He came from heaven's glory to earth's simple stable, on that silent holy night. How tightly did Mary's fingers grasp the mane of the donkey as she travailed through the night? Did her white knuckled fingers cling to Joseph's as she labored in the smelly straw of that stable? How her hands must have gently trembled as she swaddled her newborn. Oh how those precious tiny fingers tightly grasped His mother's as she cared for her baby boy.
Philippians 2 5-6..."Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient....."
To what are you grasping tightly this Christmas?
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