WINTER SOLSTICE

The day with the least amount of sunlight all year!

This time of year we are all, running helter-skelter, trying to finish last-minute projects. Just when we are getting things done someone unplugged the sun. I looked at my watch expecting it to be around five, but it was only 3:30! Yep! It is the shortest day of the year, and that isn’t all bad.  We need to slow down and rest, and reflect on what we still need to do and what we have already accomplished.  We also need to remember what we are celebrating.

Did you ever stop to think that we wouldn’t need to celebrate the birth of Jesus, if he didn’t die on the cross and then lived again? Then to be reunited with his father when he ascended, (in a whole alive body, not just in Spirit) to heaven. It was the death of our Saviour that made the celebration of his birth have any meaning.

How many of you have lived past the age of 33 years old? ‘We never know when our life will be required of us.’ On the longest or the shortest day of the year.  Jesus lived a very short life, considering the average life span today of 80.1 years for a male. Yet, look at everything he taught us and did for others.  Yes, others, that he came to serve, teach and die for. This Christmas season we should try do things for others. Go caroling, serve in a soup kitchen, or community supper, and donate to a charity like the Salvation Army.  But if you can’t do any of these things; pray. Pray for our service men, police, firefighters and our President. Pray for the sick, the lonely and the lost. It is a monumental gift and it doesn’t cost a thing.

As parents it is important for our children to know they can pray for anything, anyone, anytime, and anywhere.  Teach them prayer is just a conversation with God, who is always listening, and always near them.

We as writers we are often caught up in the magic of Christmas, and Christmas miracles.  Well, the true magic was the virgin birth of an infant who would perform many miracles, including his death, burial, and resurrection giving us the greatest gift of all: Eternal life!

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Psalms 90:12

Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

Psalms 139:16

Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.

Psalms 144:4

Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;

Job 14:5

That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
John 3:15