Final Moments

I remember leaving the Smokies on November 6th to head back to Georgia... it was bitter sweet. I thought the colors would be just plain blah this year but our nation's most popular National Park showed off spectacularly in a short span of time between late October and early November. This photo was taken along Hwy 441 at the Chimney Tops pullouts.

What is it about final moments that stick with us? Well, I guess it's because we know that we can never go back and experience things in just the same way, with the same person, or with the same emotion. Things change, people change, the environment changes. So we hold on to those departing moments.

As Christmas approaches, I can't help but think what it was like for our Heavenly Father and Jesus as their relationship was about to change dramatically. The Son of God was going to become the Son of Man. The Spirit Jesus would take on earthly flesh. The Prince of Peace would be born in an animal stable and laid in a feeding trough as a tiny, innocent, helpless baby.

How do you say goodbye to One who 33 years later would be sacrificed on a cruel cross of death taking the punishment of the people He poured His life into? This would be no surprise at all but instead part of God's intentional and eternal plan for mankind's redemption and salvation. Well, maybe it wasn't so much a goodbye then as it was a "see you later" because Jesus would rise from the dead and ascend back to the Father in heaven.

I have dear friends who have been saying, or are in the process of saying, goodbye to loved ones recently, but because they are Christians they are really saying "see you later" but that does little to ease the pain deep inside right now. Our Heavenly Father knows your pain if you're going through separation struggles right now. Let Him minister to your heart. It most often takes someone who has walked in your shoes to give you the greatest comfort.

Philippians 2:5-8
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

That, my friends, is the Christmas story! Take heart.