Bon voyage!

I am getting on a plane this afternoon for Brisbane. Another year has passed, and once again I go to the airport by myself to go “home” for Christmas. Something about being at airports alone around Christmas time always feels a little sad to me. But, in his short message at Carols Under the Bridge on Saturday night, Paul Dale began with this very scenario, describing the night he landed in Heathrow Airport on Christmas Eve and no one was there to meet him. Then he went on to explain how, that first Christmas, Christ came down from heaven and entered our world to become Immanuel, God with us (Matthew 1:23), and is now present in our lives, such that we will never be truly alone again. So this year at the airport I will remember that. There may never be anyone for me on this earth who is going to “be there”, but Christ is, which is better by far.

Then last Sunday evening we had a thanksgiving service at my church. This involves an extended time for members of the congregation to share something they are thankful for. I had remembered this earlier in the week, then forgot over the course of the weekend, but I decided to get up and say a few words in any case. (I am OK at speaking in public if I have thought about it in advance, but this impromptu business is a little more nerve-wracking, and I am not sure which bits I actually said and which bits I just thought about.)

We had just sung My Heart is filled with Thankfulness which has in it this verse that particularly appeals to me:

My heart is filled with thankfulness

To Him who reigns above

Whose wisdom is my perfect peace

Whose every thought is love

So I got up and began with that. One of Paul Dale’s sermon points was “Thank God that he is in control”, and I do, and I said something to the effect that I feel like we can never stop learning that God truly is good and he truly is loving, and we can trust him in that, and be at peace. A lot of circumstances haven’t turned out how I would have liked them to this year, but I have to trust that the reason is because God didn’t want them to, at least not then and not in that way, and he didn’t want them to because that is for my good.

The second related thing I was thankful for is that I am learning to appreciate not just that God is loving, but what kind of love it is that he gives. It’s a love that endures forever (we’d also just read Psalm 136 in church). It is a love that took the risk, and made the effort, at great personal cost to Himself, to rescue us and love us, before we had to “prove” we loved him in return (I started out my Christian life in a church denomination that was a little more Arminian (once upon a time, before we went to the reformed church), and was taught there that my faith was more up to me, but I believe it is truer, and much more comforting, to know that God loves me, and wants to initiate relationship with me, without me having to do all the hard work to get it). It’s also a love that continues despite our repeated unfaithfulness. The longer I live the more amazing such a love is to me. People might be disappointing, because they are people, and they can’t be functional saviours, but God’s love never fails, in any facet of it.

So, those were two things I continue to be thankful for.

As we go into this season of giving, I did appreciate this post over at the Gospel Coalition on the giving and receiving gifts (for those of us who enjoy giving, and maybe even receiving, gifts). I hope you all have a peaceful and joyous Christmas!