Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Devotional 12-24-08

JOY

Last Thanksgiving my husband, Steve and I had our whole family together for a holiday for the first time in five years. We had a wonderful time. The next day our son, Mark and his family headed out route 10 to Hamlin to spend some time with his wife, Sylvia's family. An on coming car clipped a mail box and careened into their path. The call came about 2:30, "Mom, we've been in a bad accident, the girls and I are ok, just a little beat up, but Syl is bad. They wanted to airlift her out, but couldn't land here. The ambulance is leaving with her now. The girls and I won't be far behind. Meet us at Cabell Huntington." My husband and I were waiting when the ambulance arrived. We were finally taken back to the ER. Our son was strapped to a gurney, Layken, his 16 year old was strapped to one at his feet. His 7 year old twins were in separate rooms. The head nurse wanted a grandparent with each twin. They, of course were terrified. Sylvia was in intensive care. Everyone else but Mark (his ankle was broken) was admitted for observation. I stayed with the 3 girls, Steve stayed with Mark in the ER. Around 2:30 AM, after I had finished settling the last one in (they came up one at a time, thank goodness), Steve came down the hall pushing Mark in a wheel chair. He had to check on his girls before he could go home. They had just left Sylvia and told us that she would be fine. I finally settled down on my chair bed. It had been a long, very scary day and night to say the least! All I could think of was a multitude of heavenly angels praising God and singing, "Glory to God in the highest!" My family was safe and I was filled with joy!

I think sometimes you have to hit a low before you can experience the highs of joy. People who have just found Christ seem to exude a joy that those of us who were raised in the church have a hard time feeling. What we feel (or what I feel) is more of a quiet thankfulness. We know what Christ did for us and truly appreciate it, but it is not new to us. In fact we have never experienced life without Christ's love and grace. Take a minute and try to imagine your life with out hope, filled with pain, filled with sadness, always pursuing happiness, but never really finding it. Take your worst day and imagine living it without God. Now, let your soul be filled with the miracle of Gods love and grace, "For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given."(Isaiah 9: 6). Joy to the World Our Saviors Born!!!

May this Christmas fill you with the joy of the miracle of Gods love for each of us!

Margaret Williams

No comments: