Christmas changed everything.

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Table of Contents

Christmas changed everything. How could it not?

Covid is raising its ugly head once again. We’re all more uneasy today than we were yesterday. So I thought I’d just share some pictures with you of some decorating I’ve done.

This year I had to be especially creative. My daughter has a Golden Doodle puppy. Need I say more? So mostly I created “up” if you know what I mean. And even then, he managed to get to some items I didn’t think he could. My Christmas decorating was all about change.

But you know what? It wasn’t all bad. I only used about a third of my decorations which means I only have a third to put up after Christmas.

This first vignette is probably one of my favorites. I love these paper maiche’ figures. I made these at least twenty years ago.

This is my centerpiece. Nothing fancy. Just a winter scene. I put it all in a crate so I could move it easily at dinner.

As I said, I only used about a third of my decorations this year because of the puppy so I just added Christmas picks and balls and tucked them into the existing pieces. Not my favorite but OK for this year.

Sometimes we need to change things up a little. It gets us out of our comfort zone and stimulates our creativity.

I can’t help but think about Covid, that certainly changed things up, didn’t it? It think about all those who will be missing a loved one this year and how they must be feeling. It’s one thing to change things up ourselves. It’s something else again when it’s done for us.

I don’t like forced change. Do you?

I’m betting, no.

We like to be in control.

I think all of us like to feel in control. I wonder if that’s why there are so many Bible verse that instruct us to depend on God. He knows we like to steer our own lives. And when we do, He is aware that we are trying to tell Him what to do. Isn’t that true? And yet, there are as verses that tell us to plan, to think ahead. So which is it?

It’s both. It works like this.

We study God’s word and learn the basic principles of loving our neighbor, forgiveness, integrity, honesty. We live our lives daily with these principles in mind while still making our own decisions, We plan our lives all under the umbrella of God’s word and move and plan freely under God’s grace. But then something happens and we have to change course. Does that mean we were heading in the wrong direction or that we weren’t depending on God?

Not necessarily.

God is still in the center

As long as stay in God’s word, as long we walk closely with Him, we can trust that whatever changes, He doesn’t. God remains the one constant in our lives. Whether He initiated it or not, we can keep Him in the center. He is our compass no matter which direction we are headed.

Changing how I decorated this year was not welcome at first. I dearly love decorating for Christmas. I felt myself somewhat discombobulated. Like, how do I do this? It might seem like a silly little example but I think the principle is the same. When change is forced on us, how will we respond?

How we fight change

Will we fight it, try to find a way around it, or delve right into it. Any of these choices might be right depending on what the change is. But if there is one thing in life we can count on every time, it’s this.

Life will always be changing. How we as believers respond to it will tell us a lot about our faith. Will we complain? Will we sulk? Or will we acknowledge that while life changes around us, God never does.

Truly, isn’t that the real meaning of Christmas, that God changed everything when He came to earth as an innocent babe? Everything begins and ends with him. Christmas Eve changed the world. It changed our own personal worlds as well.

A mark of maturity

It is said that the true mark of maturity is the ability to accept change. I think that’s probably true. But as with most such words of wisdom, there is always the exception. And that exception is that God is who He says He is and He never changes. We should never go along with any teaching that suggests otherwise.

So today if you are facing change, if you are walking close to God, that change may be a good change.

God bless and have a safe day.