Have you ever seen one of the new robot babies that are common placed in high schools all over America?  Robot babies are life size baby dolls that are used to teach high school students the responsibility that comes with having a child.  Each Baby Robot has a timer set to cry- loudly- whenever it’s time to feed the child it’s electronic bottle.  To make sure they don’t drop the baby off with their mom, each student has an electronic bracelet on their wrist that let’s the teacher know if the student and baby are separated.  So as the student goes about their active, busy lives, they must stop everything and tend to their child.  What do the students learn?  They learn that you can’t focus on a baby in your life without sacrificing your focus on something else.

This Christmas, as every Christmas, the Christ Child is coming.  Yet no matter how hard you try, to refocus your mind and spirit on Christ, other things continue to demand your attention.  What you need is something to make you focus on Christ in the midst of your crazy Christmas season.  What if you got a Baby Robot to carry around with you this Christmas season to remind you of Baby Jesus?  Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, you’d never know when your Baby Jesus robot might give a wail.  But instead of the baby crying for you to care for him, this Baby Robot would cry for you to take care of someone else.

It might work like this.  You’re in the mall and your Baby Jesus Robot wails.  Looking around, you see a mom with a double wide stroller filled with packages and a bunch of little ones she is trying to herd onto the escalator.  You post pone buying a gift for your boss, and instead help the mother with her dilemma, wish her a Merry Christmas and  TA_DA!  Your Baby Jesus Robot smiles.  Or maybe when your Baby Jesus Robot wails at a family gathering, you see your typically chatty sister-in-law sitting alone, withdrawn from everyone else.  So instead of making sure there’s enough chairs at the dinning table, you sit by her and begin to ask her about her life and TA-DA!  Your Baby Jesus Robot smiles again. 

It’s frightening to think that focusing on the Christ Child means at anytime, and at any place, Christ can interrupt your day to think of Him and touch another life.  Like the High Schooler’s Baby Robots, focusing on Christ requires you to sacrifice other demands to draw closer to Him.  Maybe that’s why  attempts at keeping Christ in your thoughts are often half-hearted.  It’s frightening to give up control of your time, even to Jesus.   

Spending your Christmas season shifting your attention away from your to-do list and on to Christ could put a little fear in anyone.  After all, there’s no telling what Jesus might ask you to do!  But remember Luke 2:10.  “Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”  Don’t be afraid.  Just take the Christ child with you, where ever you go. He’s got some surprises in store for you; just look and see.

Sometimes this song speaks so clearly to me I can barely breathe. For me there is no other Christmas song which speaks so beautifully about the heart of Mary as Breath of Heaven by Amy Grant.  It relates not only Mary as humble and frightened but also as yearning for the closeness of the Lord.

I have traveled many moonless nights
Cold and weary, with a babe inside
And I wonder what I’ve done
Holy Father, you have come
And chosen me now, To carry your son

I am waiting in a silent prayer
I am frightened by the load I bear
In a world as cold as stone,
Must I walk this path alone?
Be with me now, Be with me now

Breath of heaven, Hold me together
Be forever near me
Breath of heaven, Breath of heaven
Light up my darkness
Pour over me your holiness
For you are holy  Breath of heaven

This song touches me not because of what it says about Mary but what it says about me.  I too am so often frightened, humbled and in desperate need for the closeness of my Lord and Savior.  Even if you already know the song, take a minute to let this song lead you to the closeness of the Lord this Christmas season. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPbV_HTpyx0

During the holidays, I like to read books that drag me back into the true Spirit of Christmas.  I have never found a book which does this better than Two From Galilee by Marjorie Holmes.  What is so precious about it?  It is the love story of Mary and Jesus.  What better way to be swallowed up in Christmas joy than through the eyes of  the young parents of Jesus struggling to comprehend and fulfill God’s will?

I have read this novel through many Christmas seasons and it always warms my heart and my soul.  It’s an easy read- just the escape from the chaos you need this Christmas season.

http://www.amazon.com/Two-Galilee-Story-Mary-Joseph/dp/0553281003

“I wonder though, if one of the reasons we fail to acknowledge the brilliance of life is because we don’t want the responsibility inherent in the acknowledgement.  We don’t want to be characters in a story because characters have to move and breathe and face conflict with courage.  And if life isn’t remarkable, then we don’t have to do any of that; we can be unwilling victims rather than grateful participants.”

Inquisitive only begins to describe my son Garrett as a preschooler.  Too often the answers to his questions were beyond me.  The most frustrating questions camewere when driving in the car and Garrett would ask “Where is that man going?”  Confused, I saw Garrett was pointing to a stranger in the car next to us.  How was I supposed to know where a complete and total stranger was going?  So at first I replied  “I don’t know.”  But the same question continued for car after car so I started making up answers.  “He’s going to the grocery store”  “That man’s going to the playground.” After all, he was three.  Making up answers is not the greatest parenting technique but sometimes maternal sanity is a priority. 

It makes me wonder, when I ask God questions, do I sound like an inquisitive 3 year old?  After all, there was nothing wrong with Garrett’s question it’s just that neither Garrett nor I had a large enough perspective to know where the guy was going.  Instead, we sat in my 4 door blue impala with lots of questions and no answers.  Garrett’s questions sounded childish but the pain from unanswered questions from God is all too real.

“Why did they loose their job?”
“Why did they have to die now?”
“Why didn’t you protect me?”
“If you love me why won’t you heal me?”
“Why am I still alone?”

Unlike me and my marginal parenting skills, God doesn’t make up answers to satisfy us.  God never lies but to understand the answers we have to see things from a much larger view than we’re capable.  We need God’s view.

God’s view?  Now that certainly does not seem possible, and it’s not- not on this earth.  But  1 Corinthians 13:12 tells us that in heaven we will know things completely.  The verse says, “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”  Think about that.  Here on earth, we only see things of God partially but in heaven?  That’s a whole different story.  Then we will see God face to face and know the complete story of everything that’s happened.  It seems unbelievable but it’s true.

Today, you may not see any good reason for the hardships and tragedies in your life.  And if God does have an answer to your question, you’re confident, you’re not going to like it!  But in heaven,  the answers will make perfect sense.  Imagine being in heaven, filled with wonder and understanding and thinking “Now I see!  Now it all makes sense.  Of course there was that incredibly painful thing in my life.  I understand it all so fully now, I wonder why I couldn’t see it before?”

One day we will have understanding but today what we have is faith.  Faith means believing God has it under control even when we can only see things poorly, like in a mirror.  One day all things will be clear.  Until then friend, believe.  Hold on to your faith and believe.

“Far too often, Christians sell themselves short.  When they find themselves in everyday conversations, they shy away from the thought that they could make a difference in the other person’s life.  They ramble on about the insignificant, shielding themselves, ironically, from speaking about what is most important to them.  Their faith falters at the prospect that this conversation could be filled with eternal significance.”

Some songs are just true.  Audrey Assad and Matt Maher have captured the yearning that can come from a Christian’s heart for the rest that comes only with Christ.  The melody melts my stress and Audrey’s voice is so soothing and comforting.  But I think the thing I like about this song the most is that when I hear it, I am reminded what that restless feeling inside of me really is.  It’s too easy to get caught up in the buzzing of my life and think my restlessness  can be fixed by getting one more thing done or having 15 more minutes of sleep.  Here’s Audry and Matt’s take on restlessness:

Oh, speak now for my soul is listening
Say that You have saved me, whisper in the dark
‘Cause I know You’re more than my salvation
Without You I am hopeless, tell me who You are
You are the keeper of my heart
You are the keeper of my heart

And I’m restless, I’m restless
‘Til I rest in You, ’til I rest in You
I’m restless, I’m restless
‘Til I rest in You, ’til I rest in You
I wanna rest in You

Restlessness is Ok, as long as I remember where to go to find rest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2KNlCt-WBs

When I read Chaim Potok’s novel The Chosen back in the 1980’s, my brain exploded.  I knew that I had never understood the complexities of the Jewish culture and traditions and I equally knew that to understand Jesus, I needed to understand Judaism.   Through this book you’ll learn answers to questions you did not know to ask.  You discover the strength of the Torah, the community and the family in two young Jewish boys lives.

The story is the unimaginable friendship between a Hasidic Jewish boy Danny and an orthodox Jewish boy Reuven.  Set in 1940’s New York, you will become surrounded by the chaos of the time yet somehow both boys, as boys always do, grow into men.

My favorite parts are the scenes in the Hasidic community where they teach through questions.  Sound familiar?  Jesus was a great teacher through questions.  I’ve read most of Potok’s novels over the years and each reveals to me his extraordinary view of the Jewish life he loved.  You’ll remember this book for a long time.

Learn more: http://potok.lasierra.edu/Potok.chosen.html

It’s Christmas time… again?  

 Instead of…     Confusion and Exhaustion,

Let this Christmas be about… Renewal and Anticipation.

 Looking at the craziness of the coming Christmas Season can make you feel like something is missing.  Has Christmas changed?  What happened to the true Spirit of Christmas?  Fear not!  The Holy Spirit is the True Spirit of Christmas, and He is as alive and vibrant today as He was during that first Christmas.  This holiday season, let these light-hearted yet profound devotionals guide you to see the Holy Spirit not only in the lives of Mary, Joseph, Simeon and Elizabeth but  in your own life as well. 

Discovering the True Spirit of Christmas: Fifteen minutes a day to a Christ-centered Christmas by Karen Tripp MS

WHERE: St John Lutheran Church Ellisville 15800 Manchester Rd Ellisville, MO 63011

WHEN: Sunday, Dec 5th 8:30-noon.

Speaker, Author, Counselor Karen Tripp MS loves people and loves the Bible.  Through her books, radio devotionals and speaking opportunities, Karen inspires new insights into the working of God’s love in people’s lives. Having lead Beth Moore bible studies for over a decade, Karen is now sharing her gifts through this study.  Her other books include God is Bigger Than Your Cancer and God is Bigger Than Your Grief.   Find out more at www.Godisbiggerthan.com.

 “WOW – I thank God for your incredible gift of writing.  I found myself captivated by your stories, examples, and strong points.  Discovering the True Spirit of Christmas will bless many.”  Pastor Ryan Peterson St John Lutheran