Tag: Christmas

Uncategorized, Wonder-Full Wanderings

A Light in the Darkness {wonder-full wanderings}

Rebekah Freed

A pretty common childhood fear is the fear of the dark.  As we grow up, the actual anxiety of being in an unlit room typically lessens, however fear of other kinds of darkness only increases. 

We’re afraid of the darkness of tough situations in life.

We’re afraid of the darkness of sadness or depression.

We’re afraid of the darkness we see in the world around us.

We’re afraid and often when we’re afraid then we are ashamed of that fear and end up hiding in the darkness. 

One of my very favorite parts of the Christmas season is the fact that there are lights everywhere… Lights on trees, lights on houses, candles, and more.  A moment I treasure each year is at the end of the Christmas Eve Candlelight service when everyone holds their candle high in the air and Pastor reminds us of the verse we speak at each baptism:

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good deeds and give glory to your Father who is in Heaven. Matthew 5:16

This moment is just so beautiful.  People recount it with joy and awe. Last night I had a chance to witness this from the balcony… watching one candle, Christ’s candle, was passed from person to person and soon lit up the entire room.  And isn’t that how it’s supposed to be when we face the darkness in our world?!? The Light came into the World on Christmas and it began to spread… From Mary and Joseph … To the shepherds who began to tell others… From the 12 disciples who told others who told others… Generation to generation the light has been passed.  And now, it’s our turn. 

May we hold our light high, because it truly is a beautiful thing to watch the light overtake the darkness, overtaking our fears.  The great thing about it all is that while darkness may be scary, light always wins! 

Shine your light bright today! 

Merry Christmas! 

  

Bekah's Heart, Devotional, Hope Restored

Repeat the Sounding Joy

Rebekah Freed

I have a lot of friends who are hurting this Christmas season. Broken…abused…challenged…confused. Each day as I am reminded of their situations and prompted to pray, one thing I pray for, is joy. We hear that word through many Christmas songs… especially “Joy to the World” but what about when joy doesn’t seem to come to our world.

While reading my Advent devotion this morning (which I LOVE by the way), I was a reminded of this great passage in the little Old Testament book of Habbakkuk:

“Even though the fig trees have no blossoms,
And there are no grapes on the vines;
Even though the olive crop fails,
And the fields lie empty and barren;
Even though the flocks die in the fields,
And the cattle barns are empty,
Yet, I will rejoice in the Lord!
I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!
The Sovereign Lord is my strength!

Perhaps the friends on my heart might say it this way…

“Even though the job opportunities don’t blossom,
And I see no fruit from my labor,
Even though friends fail me, and family fails me, and I fail me,
And my home is empty and barren,
Even though my loved ones have died,
And my heart is empty,
YET, we can rejoice, we will rejoice, we must rejoice.”

And even when that seems impossible, I’ve been reminded that joy doesn’t come in any of those things. Joy comes from the God of our salvation, alone, no where else, no one else. That God is One who is always blossoming, never failing, abundant and full, never empty and barren.

And the joy comes when we shift our focus to Him… And, as the songs says, we “Repeat the sounding joy!”… When we choose consciously to remember and repeat, again and again, the Sovereign One who reigns and is in control even when our lives feel wildly out of control. That joy comes when we remember and repeat His love that comes to us in those moments of need, that came to us as a baby this Advent. We remember and repeat, to ourselves and to each other because we all need reminding. We find joy not in our circumstances, but in our cross-bound, infant King. And with that joy, comes HOPE! Hope that we are not forgotten in this crazy world. HOPE that gets us through each day. HOPE that whether better days come here on this earth or not until we’re in Heaven with him, they WILL come, just as sure as He came that first Christmas.

So even if your life is falling apart this Christmas… We can still rejoice! We can join with the “fields, floods, rocks, hills, and plains” to repeat that joy over and over and over again reminding ourselves and each other of the God who Saves, the God who reigns, the God who alone brings joy and restores our hope.

Joy to the World, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

IMG_1787.JPG

Bekah's Heart, Random

A New Advent Tradition

Rebekah Freed

As Advent began a little over a month ago, I was trying to figure out a new tradition I could start to celebrate.  I talked with friends, read blogs, searched the internet, and brainstormed, yet so many of the ideas I found all centered around doing things with your family each day… with the people that live in the same space as you.  I was thankful for some ideas of things I could do long distance with family as well as the many opportunities I had this last month to join in with other families here to celebrate, but I wanted something special to celebrate and mark the journey of Advent. I wanted something that would keep me focused on what this season is really all about.

 

Somehow as I read about seed planting, Jesse Trees, shepherds bags, advent activity calendars, family devotions and more I realized that even if I was living alone, whatever my advent celebration ended up being, it was meant to be shared.  So here’s what I ended up with as my new personal advent tradition:

 

On the Saturday before Advent I sat down with my address book and made a list of friends that are now spread out all over the country … people I talk to often, people I never see, and people everywhere in between.  After I had a list of 29 names, I addressed a greeting card to each of them and placed them in one of my Christmas decorations designed to actually hold received greeting cards.

 

Each night before bed, I would pick out one card from the pile.  Sometimes the picking was random and other times something about that day reminded me of someone and so I would choose that person’s card for that day.  Then I would sit down and share.  Each card had at least two things described in it… a general update of how life is and a summary of where God took me on my Advent journey that day.

 

Some days were filled with exciting moments to share with my friend, while other days God took me through some difficult stuff on the journey toward the birth of his Son.

 

While I missed a few days here and there and it wasn’t always easy to make the time, I must say that this tradition is defintiely sticking around (and possibly making an appearance at Lent too)!  Here are a some of the reasons why:

  • It forced me to ask myself the question everyday: God what did you want me to learn in this day and did I learn it?  Where did you want me to go and did I go there?  What did you want me to do… did I do it?
  • I knew that each night I would have to share something about where God took me on my Advent Journey so I learned to keep my eyes open to him at work otherwise I knew it would be hard to have anything worth sharing if I didn’t keep my eyes open.
  • I got to connect with some friends that I haven’t talked to in a long time.
  • Everyone loves snail mail! 🙂
  • I love writing letters/cards and haven’t taken enough time to do it lately.
  • I would have never sent out 20+ Christmas cards this year if I just sat down and did it all at one time (at least not ones that had anything beyond my signature and a brief Christmas greeting).
  • I heard back from about half of the people and it gave me a chance to hear what’s going on in their worlds too.
  • I got to share the typical “catch up” details that everyone wants to know but the second part of each card forced me to go deeper than that and share about how life REALLY is… in that day.
  • My advent celebrations weren’t limited to myself and/or the people I see around here in NY… I got to invite people all over the country into at least one day of my advent celebrations.  Often, I was able to share what I was doing with people here in NY with the people I was mailing cards to outside of NY.  This means that the to the living nativity with Tracy, Jaime, and Addie; decorating sugar cookies with friends; and spending Christmas with the Whiteds all meant so much more as I relived them that night and shared them with friends in CO, IA, FL and beyond. 🙂
  • It helped keep my focus on what this season is all about and why Jesus came… which is what really matters anyway. 🙂

 

I would love to hear about any advent or Christmas traditions you all have!  Please share them in the comments.

Poetry/Songs

“Don’t Leave Messiah in the Manger”

Rebekah Freed

I wrote this song a couple year ago to sing at Christmas time in my church back home.  It’s easy I think, even as Christians, to choose to do exactly what the title of this song tells us NOT to do… to leave Jesus in the manger.

 

Christmas comes and we get excited about that little baby that’s come to save us (and all the gifts we give and receive)… but then the rest of the year, it’s just “that God-guy over there”… Whether consciously or not, it’s easy to think, "He’s not powerful enough…. He’s not mighty enough… he’s just that baby in the barn that we sing about at Christmas.” 

Well, I wonder what might happen if we stop trying to keep Jesus confined to being “just a baby in a manger”.   I wonder what would happen if we let Jesus be the Savior and King in our everyday lives that he came into this world to be. 

As Christmas passes this year, please, don’t leave your Savior “away in a manger.”  Let him come near… who knows just what could happen?!?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Don’t Leave Messiah in the Manger

We sing , “away in a manger” There’s “no crib for a bed.”
Where our Lord Jesus Christ, “laid down his sweet head”
But those “stars in the night sky”, that “looked down where he lay,”
Are the same stars that shine on us today.

 

We say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
We sing “Away in a Manger” year after year
But I wonder what might happen if we let Jesus near
And don’t leave him far away in that manger

 

“O Little Town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie,”
But could really be that still with so many travelers passing by?
Yet, they didn’t seem to notice that their King was drawing nigh
As Mary laid that boy in that manger.

 

We say Merry Christmas and Happy New year
But that “little town,” Bethlehem seems so far from here.
I just wonder what might happen if we let Jesus near
And didn’t leave him far away in that manger

 

That “Silent” night, that “Holy” night on which our Savior came
How’s that fit our chaotic life… with war, hurt, and pain
I bet it wasn’t a silent night when they hung him on that cross
Made of wood, just like that humble manger.

 

Christ came to Bethlehem, but went to Calvary
There he died and rose again, to give life eternally
While it may not have been silent, it was completely holy
Cause our Lord didn’t stay in that manger

 

Yes, Christ came at Christmas, so many years past
But we forget the gift he brought before New Years has past
Let’s sing about His humble birth, day after day
And refuse to leave him away in a manger
Don’t let your Savior be a stranger
Refuse to leave Messiah in the manger.

 

Be near me Lord Jesus,
I ask Thee to stay
Close by me forever
And love me I pray.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Ps 73:28 “But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds”

Uncategorized

December 26th.

Rebekah Freed

(A re-post from a few years ago).

 

Well, officially, in the view of the world, Christmas is over.

All this hype leading up to that one day, December 25th.

We celebrate Jesus or we celebrate Santa.

The stockings that were hung by the chimney with care are now getting put back into boxes for next year.

We got up early that one day to see what Santa brought us.

The gifts that took time and energy and patience to stand in long lines, carefully hide and wrap beautifully are now torn open and strewn about the house, some games never to be played again.

Relatives travel home, decorations come down, sales at the mall begin to fade after a few days, and then we all sit around and wait another 365 days to do it all again right?

WRONG.

Why can’t we celebrate Christmas everyday?

Why not hang our worries like stockings each night and wake up to see that God has replaced them with joy.

Why not get up early every morning, anxious to see what God has planned for us for that day?

Why not give the actual gifts of time, energy, and patience and go out to serve others?

Why not have relatives come just for the fun of it to enjoy their presence?

Why not decorate our hearts with the love, joy, peace, and hope of Christ’s birth each and every day?

Instead of waiting to celebrate the birth of Jesus in 365 days, why not wait eagerly for THE day…. the day he’s coming back to take all those who believe to heaven with him?

 

Why not have Christmas everyday?!?!?!

MERRY CHRISTMAS… today and everyday!