What do you want for Christmas?

Heather Block, Layperson

December 10, 2024

I'm much older now and when my husband asks me the same question, it causes me to ponder, "What do I want for Christmas?" My heart longs for different things now, for my children to seek after the Lord, for health and safety, for hurting friends and family who have broken hearts and shattered dreams, many of the same things you likely long for.

I know one of my friends would like another Christmas with his loving wife who went on to be with the Lord, another would just love to have her broken family put back together again. Our list of what "we want" definitely seems to change the older we get. That's were Christmas breaks in and the new born baby Jesus changes everything!

As Jesus began His ministry on earth, He stood in the Temple and read, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him." (Luke 4:18-20)

Can't you imagine being in that service and being absolutely awestruck and thinking, "that's EXACTLY what I want!". I want the Lord to heal my broken heart, I want Him to release me of my addiction that has taken my life captive, I want to have sight to see Jesus as He really is and to see myself as one greatly loved by God despite of all my past. To know true freedom in Christ in a broken and bruised world!

I can understand how the "eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on Him" and that, my friend, is what will make the difference for us this Christmas. Fasten your eyes on Him! He loves you, cares for you and knows exactly what you need! Just ask!