The symbols and images of Christmas can slip by us because they are so familiar. In Love In The Room, award winning author, Marcia Lee Laycock, brings those images into focus once again as she explores the true meaning of the season. These short devotionals will stir readers to ponder the Christ child with depth and clarity.

Here’s an excerpt from one of the devotionals in Love in the Room:

The Promise of Christmas

Chaos reigned supreme. That’s how it seemed as we rehearsed our Christmas play. The first rehearsal didn’t really happen. The second one was only a bit better, and three quarters of the cast didn’t make it to the third. Those of us who were supposedly “in control” wondered if we were going to have a play at all.

That was nothing new. Every year it seems to happen. Kids run helter-skelter, some don’t show up, some can’t find costumes or those made for them don’t fit. The choir director is tearing her hair out This year seemed a bit more chaotic than usual. But somehow it all came together in the end. The night of the performance seemed to go well. I say seemed, because I was too busy trying to keep my “cast” quiet and focused, to notice if the play was working. One of the magi discovered he could use one of the shepherd’s headbands as a slingshot to wing the beads off his crown clear across the front of the church. That delighted the kids in the front row who dashed out to pick them up. Mary couldn’t stop squirming because her costume was made of wool, and Joseph kept changing his mind about which robe fit best – right up until he walked out onto the ‘stage.’

I wasn’t sure it had really all come together until the audience stood to applaud at the end. When many congratulated us on a job well done, all I could say was, “It’s a miracle!”

And that’s the promise of Christmas – it all comes together in the end. I’m sure the followers of Jesus, watching the drama of His life and death, felt the same way we ‘directors’ did. To those who thought they were in control, it looked like chaos reigned. From the moment of His birth, He and His parents had to run from those who wanted to kill Him. As He performed miracles, religious leaders plotted against Him. Even the disciples themselves didn’t understand His message. They were disappointed that He didn’t chase the Romans out of the country; He never did set up an earthly kingdom. Then, the cross. It looked like everything they tried to accomplish was doomed to fail. But in the end …

In the end, the stone was rolled away. The baby born in a stable and crucified on a cross was raised glorified, to the glory of His Father.

And there is another promise yet to unfold. As the birth of Christ is overshadowed by the cross, which was blasted away by his resurrection, even that will be outdone by His return. One day, God has told us, “Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear. They will say of me, ‘In the Lord alone are righteousness and strength’.” (Isaiah 45:23,24)

It will be a miracle and it really will all come together in the end.

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About Marcia Lee Laycock

Marcia’s work has been published in magazines, newspapers and anthologies in both Canada and the U.S. and appears frequently on the world wide web. She currently writes a regular devotional column, The Spur, which appears in publications across Canada and goes out by e-mail to avid readers. Marcia’s writing has won many prizes, garnering praise from notable Christian writers like Janette Oke, Mark Buchanan, Phil Callaway and Sigmund Brouwer. She has published four devotional books, six novels and many short stories. Marcia won the Best New Canadian Christian Author Award for her novel, One Smooth Stone. The sequel, A Tumbled Stone was short-listed for a Word award along with her fantasy novel, Journey to a Strong Tower. Marcia is also a sought-after speaker for women’s events. To learn more about Marcia’s writing and speaking ministry visit her online at www.marcialeelaycock.com

To purchase Love in the Room by Marcia Lee Laycock go to Amazon.com or Amazon.ca

Or, if you live in Canada, order directly from the author by emailing marcia@marcialeelaycock.com

 

 

“Do we really have to do this?” My husband sounded a little annoyed.

“Well, it’s what we agreed to,” I said.

He sighed and explained that he just doesn’t like the idea of making a wish list for Christmas. “Where’s the fun in that?” he asked. “Then you know what you’re going to get.”

I admitted I could see his point, but at the same time, wish lists do make it easier for everyone to buy Christmas gifts that everyone really wants, avoiding disappointment. Or, as my dear son-in-law once put it, “No crap, please.”

And I knew what was behind my husband’s words. He couldn’t think of anything to put on his list! Gift buying and receiving does seem to be getting harder now that our kids are grown and we are in the stage of life where we’re starting to think of down-sizing. They seem to have almost everything they could ever possibly need or want and so do we. We have discussed the idea of not giving gifts at all, but that doesn’t really sit well with anyone. We all love giving and receiving.

But sometimes it can all seem like a chore.

Sometimes all those spiritual “disciplines” we are supposed to keep up with – going to church, praying, reading our Bible – can all seem like chores too, instead of things we want to do. Somehow we’ve lost the want to, lost the joy that used to be there.

So, what to do?

Maybe it’s time to put it all aside for a time, investigate the reason for it all. Why do we give gifts at Christmas? Because we love our family members and friends and want to show them how much we appreciate them. Maybe the place to start is not with a gift list of things but a list of those things we love about them.

Why do we go to church, pray and read our Bible? Because we love Jesus and want to allow His love to flow through us. Maybe the place to start isn’t with a spiritual to-do list but with a true appreciation for the Giver of all gifts.

Maybe it’s time to look behind all the tinsel and toys too, and grasp once again the astounding love of a God who would leave all His power and position behind to become a small helpless babe wrapped in swaddling cloths.

Maybe that alone would bring all the joy and ‘want-to’ back, not only to the Christmas season, but to our very lives.

 “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6)

If you live anywhere in Alberta Canada right now you’re probably moaning. We had our first heavy snow in September. The ground is layered with the white stuff again and it’s only the first few days of October. And more is on the way. Looks like we’re in for a very long winter. Again.

It seems it’s harder to take when it’s untimely, doesn’t it? It leaves us feeling that it’s somehow  unfair. We don’t deserve this. Who’s got their hands on the controls anyway? And what does he have against us?

When life throws us the unexpected curve ball we usually look around for someone to blame. That someone is often God. After all, he could change things. He could reverse the disaster, stop the car accident, change our boss’s mind and even perform a miracle for all to see. So why doesn’t He do it?

Scripture tells us He will, doesn’t it? We’ve memorized some of the verses like Psalm 34:19 & 20 – “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.
He guards all his bones; not one of them is broken.”  Or Psalm 91:15 – “He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.”

The great theologian Matthew Henry says: “No substantial injury occurs to the saints. Their real self is safe; they may have flesh wounds, but no part of the essential fabric of their being shall be broken.”

So what is our “real self?” As Matthew Henry suggests, it is not our corporeal body but our spiritual essence. That, once it is sealed in Christ at the moment of salvation, can never be broken. And that’s all that matters.

James 4:14 tells us that our life “is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” But our souls are eternal. There the true treasure lies, for there God resides. And when trouble comes, as it surely will and often in an untimely manner, being able to turn to that God, not to blame Him but to draw strength from Him, is an astounding gift. This is how people like Joni Erickson Tada can still praise God even though she was paralyzed in a tragic accident when just a teenager. It’s how Daniel Ritchie, a man born without arms can say, after reading Pslam 139, “I was no longer who people said I was. I was who God said I was,” he says. “It was at this time that something even more amazing happened.  I began to see others as wonderful, too.”

Yes, we may feel cheated and angry when life dumps the unexpected on us, but breaking through that sense of entitlement and bitterness to the realization that God has a deep and enduring plan for our life, even when it feels like it’s been torn apart, will lead us to a life truly worth living.

 

 

 

“Whew, it’s hot out there!” We’ve been hearing that phrase a lot lately as the thermometer keeps rising. Many areas have seen record breaking heat waves in the past while. It has meant that we are keeping our blinds drawn and our water bottles full.

I’ve never been a heat-loving person. I was raised in northern Ontario (no, I don’t mean one hour north of Toronto, I mean at the meeting point of two of the biggest Great Lakes, Huron and Superior). Then I moved to the Yukon, just a short distance from the Arctic Circle. When it was suggested that we pick Papua New Guinea as our destination during my husband’s sabbatical year, I wrinkled my nose. That’s tropical, isn’t it? No, no, no. I don’t like heat.

But God has a way of getting us to where He can work with us, so we began making the necessary preparations to leave for PNG. One of those items was a visit to the mission’s doctor to begin the series of inoculations we would need before leaving. He was a chatty fellow and asked how I was feeling about this idea. I admitted I was worried about the heat. “I get head aches,” I told him.

He shook his head. “You Canadians! You just don’t drink enough!”

“Excuse me?”

“Water,” he said. “Drink enough water and you won’t get headaches.”

Could it really be that easy, I wondered? It didn’t take long to discover how correct that doctor had been. As long as we drank enough water we were able to tolerate the heat reasonably well.

That memory made me think of a wonderful story in the Bible about the necessity of drinking water – the kind of water that leads to eternal life. The story is in the book of John, chapter 4. Jesus had been travelling and stopped to rest by a well. When a woman came to draw water, He asked her for a drink. The woman was startled for two reasons – she was a woman and she was a Samaritan woman. Both would ordinarily prevent a Jewish man from even acknowledging her existence, let alone speaking to her.

Then this – “Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:13, 14).

Intrigued, the woman wanted to know more but Jesus had more to teach her. He revealed His true identity to her and within minutes she not only had a new purpose, but her life was changed forever as was the lives of many in her village because of her testimony.

Living water – the teachings of Jesus are indeed a “fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” And we have access to that living water any time we want it.

Yes. It really is that easy.

 

 

Maybe it’s because the winter has been hanging on, the spring has been long in coming, and the fact that the blizzard on Good Friday prevented my girls from all being home for Easter, that I’ve slumped into a bit of a pity party lately.

To be honest, that party has been dragging on too, like this winter. I recently sent out a newsletter to twenty-some wonderful people who agreed to pray for me and my writing/speaking ministry and I just whined and whined. The discouragements have gotten the better of me lately.

I was in the midst of my ‘poor me’ thought processes the other day, when we skyped with the refugee family we are hoping to sponsor. They looked and sounded like they’ve been through a long winter too. But they’re in Bangkok. Living in a 12 x 14 foot room with three kids who can’t go outside for fear of all kinds of evil. No, there’s no winter in Bangkok. Just tyrants and brutal police and overcrowded detention centres and millions – yes, millions – of refugees who can’t go home because it’s worse there.

I’ve been on the edge of tears for weeks, for my own selfish reasons, but when this lovely, intelligent, gentle soul leaned forward and said quietly, “Please, we beg you, if something happens to us, please, please, take care of our children…” my breath caught in my throat and my silent groans, for once, were not for myself.

So I need to say I’m sorry. To you who have prayed for me, to you who tried to make me smile and you who have wondered why I haven’t, to all those whose suffering is real and unimaginable, and most of all to my God.

Forgive me.

I will try to do better in the days ahead.

 

I’ve never been much of a planner. When writing, I rarely outline the story. I do eventually make a timeline of sorts, once I get into it, but that’s about it. I love the excitement of not knowing where I’m going.

Both in writing and in life, this can have some interesting consequences. Many times I’ve ended up in places I would never have even thought about, let alone planned for. When I was travelling in Portugal many years ago, for instance, I was sitting by a fountain looking at a map when a young man approached and asked what I was looking for. I told him I wanted to go to the Castle of San Jorge. He offered to take me there. Yes, I did hesitate for a moment, but, being a rather naïve university student at the time, I agreed. The young man said he would take me a way that no tourists would normally go. That sounded exciting.

It wasn’t until I found myself in the oldest part of Lisbon, moving through streets so narrow the sun did not reach them, and surrounded by loitering men, dirty, raucous children and old women cooking on open braziers, that I realized perhaps I should have thought more carefully before saying yes. All was well in the end, we ascended a steep stone stairway and emerged into bright sunlight, at the gates of the castle.

It was only in looking back at that time that I realized what a risk I had taken. And I thank the Lord for His protection. I was of the mindset that I could take such risks because I believed God would protect me. Perhaps I should have remembered an old Irish proverb – “Trust God but don’t dance in a small boat!”

In life, as in writing, it is wise to be at least a little bit prudent in planning for the future. Yes, God will lead and direct and we should trust Him, but we should also realize that He gave us a mind with which to think, and plan. This doesn’t mean that we make plans and than ask God to bless them, but rather that we open our minds, our eyes and our ears to see and hear what God might be planning for us. If we are attentive, we will discover that He is leading and guiding in all aspects of our lives, confirming the direction in many ways.

When I get an idea, in life, or in writing, I let it sit for a while, watch for further direction and advice that might come from other believers, or from the reading of God’s word, or some other reliable source. Then I move forward in faith and confidence and see where He will take me.

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1).

As we move into 2018, why not discover the excitement of not knowing where you’re going?

 

Photo by Kimberley McClafflin

Yes, I’m looking forward to it. I love all that Christmas is, and symbolizes. I love the tree with its tinsel and baubles; I love the presents tucked under it; I love the lights that decorate it, and I love the food – turkey, mashed potatoes and dressing and of course, home made pumpkin pie. I most especially love the fact that my family will gather to enjoy all these things with me.

All of these things are wonderful, yet they can be a distraction from the real message of Christmas and I wondered how I could connect them in my mind with the truths of the season.

The tree, for instance. Not all Christmas trees have needles. One of the most beautiful Christmas trees I’ve ever seen was a spindly birch decorated with tiny white lights. That tree often reminds me that Christmas is not the same for all people – many have different traditions and ways of celebrating the birth of the Saviour, but the Christ came for all, no matter their nationality, language or ethnicity.

As I thought about the lights of Christmas, I remembered that Jesus called himself the Light of the world in John 8:12. Isaiah 60:1 tells us to “Arise, shine, for your light has come.” John calls Jesus the true light that gives light and Ephesians 5:8 tells us we ourselves are “now light in the Lord.”

And the Lord himself is our food, our nourishment. He said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry…” (John 6:35). “For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (John 6:33).

And what about the presents? We know Jesus was God’s gift to us, a gift that ‘keeps on giving’ because once we have sought his forgiveness and accepted the sacrifice he made for us, He lives in us. If you have not accepted Jesus as your brother, your friend, your saviour, you have left a priceless gift unopened. That gift is offered to us all at no cost. All you have to do is say yes. Christmas gives us all a new opportunity to celebrate the gift of God’s Son, the gift of the forgiveness He has offered to us.

The tree, the lights, the food, the presents. As I began to connect all the trappings of Christmas to the truths of Christmas, I realized that it’s just a matter of seeing what is really right in front of us at any given time, and connecting it to the mercy and love of Christ.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given … And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

  Love in the Room & Christmas are now available on Amazon or from the author. Email vinemarc@telus.net