Santa’s rounds

I was thinking about the fact that Santa gets to visit every home in our area in one single night.  What an awesome opportunity and what an incredibly interesting experience that would be!  He would see how we have decorated our homes, the state in which we have left the kitchen before we went to bed, and the preparations we have made for the day to come.  Each of us are so different, we have different traditions and different ways of going about our lives.  If you were Santa and got to visit everyone in one night…what would be the message you would want to leave them with?  Part of me would like to turn all the ornaments upside down and reprogram the channels on everyone’s televisions just for the fun of it but it would be a waste of such a great opportunity. I would rather want to stop and think about what is most important, what would be most helpful for the world at the time we live. 

As I think about it, my heart focuses on that first Christmas and the individual that it found at its centre.  The message I would love every home to hear is that Jesus came to earth to bring hope and connection with God.  Real and lasting peace is available because God is reaching out to you.  My prayer for you is that this Christmas is full of joy and peace but most of all that you find the reality of Jesus who is at the centre of your Christmas.

The iPod

Last year I bought myself an iPod and joined the generation of people who walk around in their own little worlds, occasionally blurting out snatches of songs just like we were suffering tourette syndrome!     

For the uninitiated, an iPod is a small device which stores and plays any audio file you can think of.   The amazing thing about these little gadgets is just how many songs they will hold.  My device has 3771 songs loaded and ready to go.  This is enough music for me to sit and listen for 13 days straight!  

The choice you have is that you can fit even more songs on your iPod if you choose a lower quality of recording.  There is a sliding scale, and with each step the quality goes down but the overall capacity increases.  The problem is that you may, in fact, have every CD you ever owned loaded up but the quality is crackly and gives you a headache.  You have to work out where to draw the line and what you are happy to settle for.   

I think that people’s lives are beginning to reflect ipods…people have the capacity to fit so much in and then they squeeze hard and fit a little more.  The problem is, if we do this, every part of our life becomes ‘compressed’ and its quality quickly disappears.   

Jesus said “I have come that they may have life more abundantly.”  This doesn’t mean compressed and overwhelmed, it means full, fresh and free.  Make room for Him this Christmas and everything else will fit just right!