What I saw last week is in my top ten list of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. It was a few days after my last foggy post, when we had almost three and a half inches of rain. The temperature had dropped to highs below freezing over the next several days, with lows in the teens. Look at what I discovered in the ground!
Ice needles! The short pine needles in the picture give a size comparison. I’ve never seen anything like it! I’d experienced frost heaves making speed bumps in the asphalt, but here the ice grew mini columns right up out of the ground, pushing the soil up into the air!
The soil had gotten so dry that it couldn’t absorb the abundance of rainfall. The water was sitting just under the surface, and as water does, it expanded when it froze. Up, up, and away!
Those tiny frost heaves reminded me of JOY.
In case you haven’t noticed, it’s Christmastime! The Big Day we celebrate the birth of Jesus is in just two days. There is joy to be found in many parts of the Christmas story:
- The angel told Zechariah that he, his wife Elizabeth, and many others would be filled with joy at the birth of his son, John (Luke 1:14)
- Before he was born, John jumped for joy when Mary arrived to visit with Elizabeth! (Luke 1:44)
- Mary was filled with joy to be chosen as the mother of Jesus (Luke 1:47)
- The angel told the shepherds good news of joy for all people (Luke 2:10)
- The wise men were filled with joy when they saw the star over the house where Jesus was (Matthew 2:10)
After hearing the story year after year, we may forget the “great joy” part of it all. Self-imposed pressure to decorate everything perfectly, find the perfect gifts for family and friends, wrap those gifts beautifully, and create the most delicious Christmas feast ever can really put a damper on our joy!
We forget that true joy is not found in reaching any of those goals.
True joy is found in remembering the beginning of it all.
- God created humans, and enjoyed walking and talking with them (Genesis 1, 3)
- Adam and Eve broke the rules, breaking that relationship they’d enjoyed with their Creator (Genesis 3)
- They passed on their broken nature to all of their offspring, and none of us close enough to perfect to restore that relationship on our own (Romans 3:23)
- Out of God’s love for the people of the world trapped in their brokenness, He gave his most prized gift: his only Son, Jesus (John 3:16)
- Jesus came to set us free! Free from the consequences of our broken nature, free from condemnation, free from a forever separation from the presence of God, free from the weight of guilt and shame, and more!
For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
John 3:16-17 (NLT)
Is not freedom worth celebrating? I do believe it is!
This Christmas my prayer for you is that you experience in a fresh, new way the joyful freedom that Christ came to give the world. May that joy expand and overflow just like expanding ice, becoming unmistakable to everyone around you!
Do you have something to add to my list of joyful freedoms found in Jesus Christ? Let me know in the comments below!
Have a joyful Christmas, friends!
Lauri Hawley 