Merry Christmas! I pray that you had a blessed day remembering and celebrating God's amazing gift of His precious Son, sent to this world as a newborn Baby!
Babies and puppies have been a huge part of my world this past month. Well, actually one baby and one puppy. :) Our first precious grand-daughter, Baby B, was born in November. And in December we got a new puppy! So I have been cuddling and studying newborns recently.
A couple of weeks ago, I was privileged to babysit Baby B for the first time all by myself. I held her for three hours straight. What a joy! My daughter, the baby's mommy, greeted me at the door with the sleeping infant and asked with a smile if I would rather she put Baby B in her crib or if I wanted to hold her instead. What kind of a question is that to ask an eager grandmother? Of course, my daughter knew the answer, and lovingly placed the sleeping child in my arms.
I was informed on the location of the bottle and a time frame in which to expect the family to return from celebrating Big C's birthday with his friends. Little c ran to plant a kiss on Baby B's forehead and they all left. Of course, before they even pulled out of the driveway, the sleeping child awoke and expressed her puzzlement at the new situation in extremely vocal terms. But Grandma walked, cuddled, patted and chatted with her for a while. I noticed that hearing my voice seemed to cheer her the most. So we had a little talk about the wonderful family God had given to her. I told her of the awesome God who uniquely designed her, loved her more than anyone else ever could and had a wonderful plan for her future. I told her how much I loved her. She was comforted by my words and slept again peacefully.
Several weeks later, when we got our adorable but extremely lively and vocal new puppy, Sonja, whose older "sister," Krissa, has yet to be overly delighted about the new dynamics of our household, I was concerned that none of us would get any sleep that first night. My experience in the past with new puppies had set a clear precedent. But my husband had a great idea! He put Sonja in her little kennel and placed the front of her kennel right up to the front of Krissa's big kennel. They were sort of "nose to nose" . . . you get the picture? Well, the little darling quieted down as soon as the lights were turned off and slept contentedly . . . and quietly . . . all through the night!
So what have I discovered over my musings of these two events? Even a brand new baby . . . even a newborn puppy . . . needs to know that they are not alone. God instilled in each one of His creations the need for companionship . . . for relationship. In the words of the old familiar song, no one is "an island." I believe that one of the greatest fears we have as humans is that of being abandoned. Babies need to be touched and talked to; adults need to be heard and understood. The deepest need of the human heart is resolved by Christmas. Last week, I talked about the need for us to be forgiven of sin, to be transferred out of the Kingdom of Darkness to God's Kingdom of Light.
One phrase of the Christmas carol, "O Little Town of Bethlehem," speaks especially to this concept: "The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight.'" The result of living in the Kingdom of Light is that we are never alone. Once we become a child of God, we will never be alone again. Ever! God promised in Matthew 28:20b, "I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Family members may leave us by rejection or death; friends may move away or let us down; but our heavenly Father will never leave nor forsake us!
If you are His beloved child, celebrate your personal relationship with Him today! And if you do not yet belong to God, I invite you to open the best Christmas present ever . . . the one God extents to you this very day . . . by asking Jesus to forgive you for your sins and become the Lord and King of your life!
This is the last blog on blogger.com. In 2013, I will exclusively write my blog on my new word press site at www.lindaruthstai.com! If you haven't already done so, please go there, click on "blog," and sign up to receive future blogs directly to your email. Since we'll be journeying through the Bible the whole year, you may not want to miss any of them!
I invite you to read through the Bible with me in the new year and would love to hear from you if this is already an established habit of yours. If not, there are many plans available to help guide you through it. My personal favorite plan is to read from my chronological Bible which has the days' readings already organized in an easy to read method.
See you next year ! :)
copyright 2012 Linda Ruth Stai, author and inspirational speaker
