An Advent Journey through my least favourite Christmas carol (part 5).
If you would like to listen instead of read, then follow the link:
Behold Him! - soundcloud
Full disclosure: I’m sitting with my laptop on my knee, half-watching ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ on a sleepy Boxing Day afternoon. I am determined to post on the right day at the right time, but I never want to write something just for the sake of it. Powered mainly by left-over pavlova, today’s effort hasn’t had the usual number of edits and reworkings (which is why it’s too long), but I hope what I’m trying to say comes across regardless.
Over the past year, well most of my adult life, I’ve spent a lot of time feeling bad about something!
Yep, cheerful start but stick with me as you might just feel the same way.
I’ve had more than enough reasons to feel a little harumph recently, but I often feel guilty that I’m not one of those people who is full of the joy of the Lord all the time…or even most of the time.
I can’t imagine anyone saying of me, “No matter what is happening in her life, she never has a bad word to say and always has a smile on her face.”
Resilient…yes, cheerful…not so much!
“There are people much worse off than you” is something I often say to pick myself up, but it never has the desired effect. Many church sermons have reinforced the message that I need to buck my ideas up and be a more joy-filled Christian.
After all, with such a wonderful message of hope to bring to the world, how could I ever feel sad?
The only problem is that recently, I have felt sad quite a lot of the time.
Boxing Day has always been a special time for our family. Every year we would go to Mum and Dad’s for tea and enjoy Cherry Trifle, have a brutally competitive game of Scattergories, and drink Shloer like it was pop!
We did this the Christmas before last; we won’t ever do it again.
Instead, today I went to visit my Dad in his residential home…it’s still a strange thing to say!
After talking him through how to open his Christmas present and explaining who ‘Kay’ was on the gift tag, I left in full Eeyore mode.
I’ve always been more of an Eeyore than a Tigger!
As I left the home, slapping on a smile was never going to happen but I knew exactly what I would do once I got in the car.
That would be my time to worship, to sit with God and to behold him.
In moments of sadness, it’s what I’ve always done.
The final verse of ‘We Three Kings’ calls us to authentic worship. It’s not about masking and suppressing how we feel, it’s about bringing it all to Jesus.
Glorious now behold him arise,
King and God and sacrifice,
Alleluia, alleluia,
Earth to the heavens replies.
John Henry Hopkins, Jnr.
I may not be the kind of Christian who exudes the joy of Jesus, bringing smiles to the faces of everyone I meet, but I can testify that in every situation I have continued to worship the God who has been faithful to me through it all.
I’m an Eeyore with a heart full of praise, always shifting my focus heavenward.
It might not be how others show their faith in Jesus, but that’s okay.
I’m not them, they are not me, and comparison is pointless.
So, in all this waffle what am I trying to say?
Bring yourself, as you are, as a gift to Jesus this Christmas.
Yes, of course, you’re not the finished article, all gift-wrapped and shiny, but you can show the glory of God to others just by being you.
Kay Moorby
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