Facebook Christmas Story

(courtesy of Google Images)

Have you seen the buzz on this one? The Christmas story briefly told as it could have been had facebook been around when the birth of Jesus happened.

I think it's a neat concept. I really like that it's only 3minutes & 51seconds. So it's short enough that you can really watch the whole thing.

There were a couple things that really stood out to me as I was watching yesterday.

Ok so the first one was when people unfriended Joseph and it gave the notification of 25 (guesstimate) people unfriended- I thought "Oh My Goodness" people can see that you unfriended them! I know...not really the greatest thought to have when watching a things one the Christmas story....but still it was one of my first thoughts.

The next thought i did have was when Joseph was changing his status after finding out Mary was pregnant.
And how hurt and confused he was. And how "real" that all seemed.

Now mind you we often hear songs of Mary and what her thoughts AFTER the birth could have been...like "Mary did you know" and all that stuff.

But more often than not we neglect what Joseph was thinking or feeling as all this was going on.

And I must say that I do think Joseph was a pretty cool dude as he went through all of this. I mean it was a REALLY big deal having a woman you were going to marry turn up preggers suddenly. After all he KNEW it wasn't his baby. And we know how most men are Christian or not ...this would have most pretty upset, pretty wounded, pretty much going to guarantee that they were not going to stick around.

Especially back then when their society REALLY REALLY frowned upon that kind of behaviour. When I'm sure there would have been many more grave consequences for Mary. Not to mention even ones for Joseph if nothing else on a possible business side of things...remember he was a carpenter. To me that has to be a business that depends on other people.

But I was also thinking this morning as I was getting ready how God appeared to them.

And especially how God appeared to Joseph in the dream via Angels to him letting him know it was ok.
That this really was him. That it was HIS plan and HIS plan included Joseph.
But I love the way that God came to him when he needed it. When he was hurt and confused he made sure Joseph was getting the message.

And I wonder...how often does he do that for us and we don't see/hear it?

After all Joseph got his message via a dream. But do we ever get our from a person maybe? Be it a blog someone has written, or a kind word from someone we pass on the street, maybe a pat on the shoulder from a friend or a coworker.

Now I know maybe it's hard to see God in those things, after all it's not an ANGEL...but maybe it is.

Maybe it is God using someone here on Earth as an Angel because that's what we need.

Most of us these days would probably think we were off our rockers if we had dreams or visions of angels.
It's in a form that we can accept. Even if we don't always realize that God is giving us the thing we need.

I often think of the phrase that I heard all the time when I was younger.

"You may be the only Jesus a person ever sees."

And I think that is so true...there are so many people who will never step foot in a church this holiday season.
There are so many people who aren't willing to read a Bible.
There are so many people who are out there hurting who REALLY need the love of Christ.
People who God so desperately wants to reach.
And there are CHRISTIANS that are hurting, that God wants to let know.

I'm here...
I'm listening to you...
I'm waiting for you...
I'm hurting with you...
I LOVE you...


Even now... in your pain... in your suffering.
I haven't left you...
I WILL NOT leave you...
And I'm sending your sister or brother to help you...
Accept it...
Accept my love from them...
And feel that I will be here with you...
Even when you feel that you can't feel it...
Remember...
I'm here...
And I ALWAYS will be...

The Question is, will we hear it and choose to accept it?

And will we allow ourselves to be used to be that angel to someone else when they need Him?

A few of my favorite Christmas songs

So I'm not big into Christmas music.

Most of the time it gets old to me, real fast.

But there are a few that I really enjoy and I wanted to share them with you.

I hope you enjoy them....




Winter Snow- by Audrey Assad
I LOVE this song even not in the Christmas season.  Plus the video for this one is pretty great too if you ask me.  It's found on Chris Tomlin's Christmas CD should you be looking for it. 

The next one is by Nicolas Jonas (I can say that when I heard this song YEARS AGO I had NO IDEA it was one of THE Jonas Brother's singing.I was a little appaled to find out that's who it really was today but oh well I still like the song a LOT!)


For me WORDs are key with me when it comes to songs.  Not that music in it isn't very important as well with setting the mood and all that but words just speak so here you go. 

On My Mind

There seems to be so much on my mind these days.

Some of it good- like the new guy, that's good. 

Not all of it is good though.

There are lots of things happening in the world today. 
Lot's of things that cause one to question things.

Like a blogger friend of mine who struggles with infertility and just had a failed attempt to get pregnant.
She has a desire to be pregnant so bad.  It's one thing that she seems to want more than anything else.
But endo has taken most of her chances on carrying a child. 

Then there is a little boy in our area that is fighting a brain cancer.
There is very little the doctors can do for him.  They are trying some chemo but the doctors told his mom that they don't believe he will leave the hospital.

I also received news from a friend of mine who has been serving on the mission field for 14 years that she is coming back to the states for, well at least a good while by the sound of it.  She fought and beat breast cancer 4 yrs ago and only returned to the field just this year.  And now she is coming back to the states.

This weekend I also heard of a pastor friend and his wife's struggle with their adopted son.  I son I have met, a RAD kid.  (RAD- reactive attachment disorder).  The hurt and pain this child is causing (even when he doesn't know he is causing it) to his adoptive family as his condition seems to worsen- not get better as he grows older.

It just doesn't seem fair. Not one little bit.

Now I say all this knowing that God has a plan. 
And I say that I don't understand His plan. 
But I do wonder- I do have a hard time wrapping my head around the whys.

And even in this Christmas season I still question things. 
And I find it amazing how much this message of HOPE seems to be calling out. 

I wrote my blog post for the jam last week regarding HOPE for the CHRISTMAS season. 
And then have had so many more moments of God showing and telling me of that Hope since then.

Something I had never really thought of before (something the new boy actually indirectly prompted me to think about after our non date Monday the 22nd.  When we were talking about Christmas and his lack of really caring for the holiday- and my honest feelings toward the same but also noting that I love the feeling behind the season).

This Sunday the sermon of the church I was attending (I was out of my own hometown) the pastor even spoke of the hope of the Christmas season.

These are some of the notes I took that morning, he was talking about the Christmas season yet HOPE was so entwined in all of it.
Hope-the joyful anticipation of good

Any area of your life that doesn't have hope is under the influence of a lie.

Hopelessness -the expectation that nothing will change.

We need hope of this side of the miracle- meaning once we have the miracle we don't need to hope for it- after all it has already happened- we have our miracle.
When we don't have hope we don't care about what happens.

We have:

Hope because he hears us

Hope because he is like us

Hope because we can be like him.



Luke 1:5-?

The Christmas story is about the birth of John & Jesus 
(How often do we leave John the Baptist out of this?)

We see more angelic activity in the Christmas story than we do anywhere else.

Luke 1:13

Your petition (prayer) has been heard. (said to Zachariah- John's father)

As the pastor put it,The prayer that you no longer pray has been heard. 
See Zack (yep I'm calling him that for short) and Elizabeth (Mary's cousin) had been barren for a long time.  Zack was old.  I'm not sure how old Elizabeth was but let's just say they waited for a child for many, many, many years. 

Sometimes the realities of life hit and we just stop praying because we can't handle the disappointment.

YET the prayers that you no longer pray have a long shelf life in heaven. It still talks. They are still echoing up there

Acts10:4

In the birth of John the fulfilment of prophecy and prayer gives us hope.

Jesus birth we discover a hope for a different reason.

It's the Me too aspect- someone gets your situation.

The incarnation where God enters into our story. They can understand. This is the God who knows what it's like to be human. A God who's present and knows what it's like.

A God on the cross who says I know how you feel.

We can't say- you don't know how I feel. You don't know what it's like.

He's been through everything we will ever go through.

God became like us so he can know what it is to be like us.

There is Hope in the Christmas story so we could become like him.


If Jesus did all things as the son of God instead of the son of man thru the holy spirit it would be different.  But He didn't- he did it - In right relationship with God.
He couldn't do things by himself and the spirit of God came upon him.

The son of God became and man so man could become sons of God. CS Lewis.

Acts 10:38

Faith is the substance of things hoped for.

Heb10:23-25
Romans 15:5-6

If I could say anything to any of the people mentioned above, even the ones that already know this, would be this thing.

Don't give up hope.
Cling to it.  Hold on tight.
We have HOPE no matter what our circumstances are.
No matter what path we walk or where we are in our life's journey.

We have a God who brings us HOPE, who gives us HOPE if we will just choose to believe in that HOPE. 
The HOPE that is in HIM, not in us, not in ourselves, our jobs, our spouse, families, doctors or anything at all. 
But our HOPE in HIM. 
It changes all the rules of the game we call life.