Christmas Every Day by Louisa Guzman

Charles Dickens said,

“I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”

I admit it. I'm addicted to Christmas. I don't ever get tired of looking at the shiny, sparkly

Christmas lights everywhere.

I can hear and sing Christmas songs all day long. I make a day out of wrapping gifts while watching Hallmark (and any other channel that provides) Christmas movies. I live for ugly Christmas sweater parties

and have various styles and combinations of Christmas paraphernalia : reindeer antler headbands, ornament earrings, elf slippers, and bracelets and necklaces that jingle all the way! The excitement escalates with every neighborhood tree lighting, and I never pass up the chance to do a little dance with all the Salvation Army volunteer bell ringers on the street. I'm that person who gives gifts to the mail carrier, garbage pickup man, the nail salon and hair salon, and to the bus driver who greets me every day. I even find it exciting to wait to open my gifts on Christmas day. 

Yes, I am addicted to Christmas. 

But you have to admit there’s something magical about Christmas. Even those who are not too friendly suddenly smile. Some who never did before now offer seats on the train. Conversation is happier. Movies and television shows all have cheery, happy endings. The streets are beautifully dressed in holiday lights. Even the overly crowded stores become places to marvel at the decorations. There are yummy aromas of pumpkin, spice, cinnamon, gingerbread and vanilla. 

It's certainly a magical time and I have often wished that magic would last all year. 

And it can. Because the real "magic" is not in all that surrounds us during Christmas. The wonder and awesomeness of the season is in the greatest gift of all that we can open each and every day: Jesus! Yes, God loved us so much that He gave us His one and only Son! [John 3:16]

When the tree comes down and the decorations are put away, Jesus is still there, waiting to be opened and treasured, like a new gift, each morning.

Lamentations 3:22-23 tells us His compassion never fail and are new every morning. The very moment we open our eyes each morning is the first of many gifts God gives us every day.

You don't have to have a tree and lights to make you smile throughout the year - keep things around your home that remind you of happy moments. When I look at shells I've collected I think of the ocean even on the coldest days in February. 

Every time I look at this little piece of debris I picked up last summer in Hawaii I'm reminded of the special time I had with close friends there. 

Christmas music will no longer be played in the coming months, but we can sing songs of joy to our Lord, for it is good to praise the Lord and make music to His name [Psalm 92:1]. You don’t even have to wait until Christmas to feel holiday joy. By keeping our hearts open and maintaining an attitude of gratitude, we can have Christmas every day by appreciating all the little (and sometimes big) gifts God gives us each day.  Like we do during Christmastime we can make others happy by smiling more, offering good wishes, sending cards of encouragement, giving generously, inviting people over for no special occasion except fellowship and a meal. Whatever you do in December, do all year long.

Celebrate Jesus' birthday every day and Christmas will last all year long.

Pregnant With the Possible

Just imagine, that no matter how long it’s been since we’ve known Jesus, every Christmas we have an opportunity to experience two births? That’s right, we get to celebrate Christ’s birth, and experience a personal new birth in the process.

I love the story Luke tells us in Chapter 1 about how two people responded to declarations of miraculous births during the very first Christmas.

Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth were righteous before God, obedient to Him, but elderly and had no children. The angel Gabriel was sent from God to announce that their prayers had been answered. Elizabeth would bear a child.

Although he was a priest, at this point, Zacharias had given up on ever having a child. Gabriel’s declaration failed to stir Zacharias faith. He questioned the angel’s announcement and stuck with what he knew. He and Elizabeth were old and this was impossible.

Zacharias did not rest in the promise. Because of his lack of faith, the angel seized Zacharias ability to speak. Zacharias temporarily blew his opportunity to rest in the promise and to declare God’s goodness to others. Nevertheless, his wife Elizabeth became pregnant, though her pregnancy in the natural was impossible.

Gabriel told Mary, a young faith filled girl, that she would experience a miraculous virgin - birth. Mary believed, and asked how this birth would come to pass? Gabriel explained that the Holy Ghost would come upon Mary and the Highest would overshadow her resulting in the birth of the Son of God.

“Mary said, behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to your word.”

Of course Mary was aware that she would be ostracized for a pregnancy out of wedlock. She also knew that the possibility of pregnancy without a man was impossible. Nevertheless, Mary overlooked the norm, choosing to gladly receive God’s promise of the possible.

Here’s where you come in. Father God would love to impregnate you with the possible, despite the natural odds that are against you. Like Zacharias, maybe you’ve given up on a specific prayer, thinking it’s impossible at this point. Or maybe you’re like Mary, open to the miraculous despite what others may say.

The miracles Zacharias and Mary received were for them, but they were also for the world. Through John, Zacharias’ son, many came to repentance. Through Jesus, Mary’s Son, the world can receive forgiveness. What God wants to do for you will bless you and others too.

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

This Christmas give birth to the joy, the peace, and the possibility of the King of Heaven doing something new in you, for you, and through you today. With God, all things are possible. Are you ready to give birth?

God is Always Good by Joselin Nunez

God is so good. The more I learn about Jesus I see his grace in everything, even the little things and how he turns everything good.

My mom was raised in Ecuador. Her parents co-parented. When she alternated households with my grandma, a single mom of 7 kids, food was the #2 or #3 priority on her list. The #1 priority was shelter and safety. When my grandma couldn’t afford meat, rice and everything that can be thrown in, was the meal for the day. Even the cocolon was used for the next day’s meal. I'm sure these weren’t comforting times for grandma and my mom most likely got sick of eating the same meal every day.

Before my mom washes the pot of rice she always saves the cocolon for me (scorched, thin crust rice at the bottom of the pot.) She saves it in a container for me to combine with potato fries and salsa (sliced onions and diced tomatoes drenched in lime juice). Ecuadorians’ main dishes always come with salsa as a side dish. Usually salsa includes more ingredients, but because of low finances in her household, this is what my mom grew up eating.

But I, on the other hand, obsess and eat this dish by choice and not out of survival as mom did. I crave this dish constantly and there’s a joy that comes as mom and I prepare it together. I get to hear and learn about mom’s childhood and stories of her mom. Hearing about my mom’s past helps me understand who she is because of what she experienced and was taught. Communicating with her helped heal our past wounds and I now do my best to treat her as an image bearer – a bearer of the image of God – and not just my mom. I used to hold her to a higher standard because of her role in my life.

You may ask what this has to do with God. God turns everything good, even what man makes for evil. Proverbs 16:4 says the Lord has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil. What my family has had to endure some may say God allowed. How could God love us when there's so much evil in the world, like children dying from hunger?

But God didn’t cause this, sin did. In Genesis 1, the very first thing the Bible tells us is that God is the creator. John 1:3 states, “through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made”. Genesis 1:31 states, “God saw all that he made, and it was GOOD”. He is holy and can only be Good. God’s intentions were for his children to not lack anything. No image bearer should go a day without eating due to a lack of finances. Especially now in a time which we mass produce food.

God loved my grandma, my mom, and He loves me. In getting to know Him I see how He turned a bad time and memory in my mom’s life into good quality time with me.

One of my favorite stories in the Bible is in John 9 when Jesus heals a blind man. Before healing the man, Jesus’ disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” And Jesus replies in (verse?) 3 “neither this man nor his parents sinned,” this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

I have never asked my mom why my grandparents were always low on finances. I’ve always assumed living in a third world country must be hard. But God has revealed to me that neither low finances, or what man has made for evil, is of matter. I believe that some things happen for the Glory of God. God is always good.

We don’t have to wait to see it in big miracles. Jesus’ grace is sufficient and in getting to know Him you begin to see His goodness in everything. I look forward to the day when there is no confusion and all is understood. Jesus is worth knowing, and yes God is always good, even in cocolon.