Monday, Dec. 20th Update from Joni:

Monday, December 20th Update from Joni:

Last Friday I was giving someone a quick tour of my art studio, when I caught him admiring a small green candy dish on the shelf. Colored with poster paint and glazed, it was the obvious work of a child. Well, a 17-year-old child. I explained that it was the first thing I’d ever painted holding brushes between my teeth; it was 1967, the week before Christmas in occupational therapy, and I was glad I could at least smear paint on a ceramic candy dish as a present for my parents. 

That first Christmas in the hospital was hard. The way I saw it, God was asking way too much of me. Not only was the use of my body taken away at Christmas time, but also the joy of giving ‘normal’ gifts. Nothing was right; everything was wrong. By the next Christmas, however, my heart softened. Maybe I am concentrating too much on what God is asking of me and not enough on what he’s given me. Was accepting a broken body unreasonable? Of course not. He gave more than everything. As Romans 8 says, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” Things like peace that’s profound. A settled soul. Rock-solid contentment. It happened then, and it has happened again. Especially now, this Christmas, what with so many recent hospital visits still fresh in my memory and Ken’s.
 
Last Sunday our pastor said, “When the angels appeared over Bethlehem, theirs wasn’t a lullaby, it was a battle cry.” He’s right. The birth of Christ may have ended the enmity between God and man with the announcement, “Peace on earth and goodwill toward men,” but our adversary, the devil, only sneered at the peace-offering in the manger that night. It only heightened his war against God and His people — Herod’s slaughter of innocent babies in Bethlehem only proved it. And 2000 years later, the war is still raging. So friend, join me on the front lines. Nothing God ever asks of you is ‘unreasonable.’ It’s why I pray that this Christmas week, no matter what your affliction, you’ll find peace, once again, in celebrating all that the Father has graciously given us in His Son, our Savior. What a glorious and generous gift!