Christmas Week

"I was watching in the night visions,
      And behold, One like the Son of Man,
      Coming with the clouds of heaven!
      He came to the Ancient of Days,
      And they brought Him near before Him.
       ¹⁴ Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
      That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.
      His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
      Which shall not pass away,
      And His kingdom the one
      Which shall not be destroyed." Daniel 7:13-14

It's Christmas week for us, and I'll tell you, a few weeks ago I thought we would never get here.   We had so much busy-ness going on, that I looked forward to today so incredibly much.  And now it's here, and now I can really rejoice and be glad that Christmas is upon us.  I'll confess that I didn't want to get up this morning, sleep just felt so good last night, and extra sweet.  But when I did decide to rise out of bed, it was with thoughts of joy, and of thanking God for another new day of life.  And looking forward to spending the day just doing whatever comes to mind with my wonderful children, who worked very hard this past weekend to put together their Christmas program for church.

As I peeked at the calendar this morning, I couldn't help but smile.  It IS Christmas week, and I'm simply amazed, yet again.  One month ago, I looked at the calendar and I just couldn't see how we were going to be able to have a nice Christmas for the kids.  Purchasing gifts just didn't seem like it was going to happen.  But then God totally blessed Andy through his employer, and what do you know, we have gifts to put under the tree come Christmas morning.  I am so thankful to God for that, because as Christmas crept closer, and the kids would talk about presents, I was almost getting angry and annoyed.  Thank God for his provision, which even includes gifts to make Christmas special for children.

Then I thought about Christmas week and about how we do celebrate the birth of Christ all around the world.  And we hear the story of His birth in a manger with the shepherd in the fields and the wise men a short while later...but we don't hear about the reason He came on Christmas morning.  Jesus came be King of the Kingdom of Heaven.  He came, so that the mistakes the first Adam made could be rectified, and earth and all its inhabitants could be freed of the treachery of Satan.  And we are free indeed!  The vision that Daniel had years before Jesus' birth was the real reason that Jesus came.  He came so that we might have eternal life in the presence of God the Father.

As I read these verses in Daniel, I just get so excited!  His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away! And! We get to be a part of that.  His kingdom will not be destroyed, and there's nothing the devil can do about that.  Jesus has already won, and that's what we're celebrating this Christmas week.  We're celebrating the greatest love of all, and I think it's going to be a great week.