Thursday, December 24, 2009

Christmas With Family And Friends

First of all I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! This is always a great time of year as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There are many people and things that try to take away from the significance of what Christmas is all about but we should not let anything change our own point of view. No matter what others may say Jesus was born and He came to restore the lost relationship between God and man. I for one am so glad that He died on the cross for my sin!

One thing about being a missionary is that this normally means you move away from family and friends. When holidays like Christmas come around those exact things of family and friends are what can make the holiday so special. Today I was thinking about just this when I had another thought about all of the people that God has brought into my life, the people who are a part of my spiritual family.

We all have a natural family that we are born into and when we become a Christian we are "born again" into another family. Currently I live in Germany and while I have a wonderful natural family back in the USA that I love God has also connected me with so many people here that form a sort of second family. This will be a unique Christmas for me as I will be with my spiritual family tomorrow for our church service and afterward I will leave to fly to the USA where I will spend some time with my natural family.

The people that I work with at RHEMA Germany are like family to me, as are the people in our church and in our Bible schools. There are so many wonderful connections and relationships that God has blessed me with over the years that I now have friends all over the world who are a part of my spiritual family. I am grateful for my natural family and I certainly look forward to spending some time with them during the holidays. But, I am also very thankful for all of the people that God has connected me with that make up my spiritual family.

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