I Just Don't Understand...

   "Welcome to the 21st century, Dad."

   Words spoken by my youngest son the other night as we concluded my first ever Skype session over the Internet.

   We had been bemoaning the fact that we could not see all those kids out in California over the Christmas holidays. Doug's family was on sabbatical for a year way out there, and it was just too far for us to go right now. So, knowing that the computer I was using was his old one and that it had the Skype program installed on it, he suggested that we try to hook up that way for a video chat.

   So, we did.

   He could lead me through the right buttons to push, and we ended up watching and listening to that family 3,000 miles away, but I really don't understand how it all happened. I accept that it is possible and actually did happen, but am left wondering how and why it all came about.

   Most every morning for the past couple of weeks, I have read and thought about the Christmas Story as recorded in Luke 2. I have wondered about the people involved, what their lives were like before and after that night with the angels and the star.

   The verse from a Christmas Carol comes to mind:

   I wonder as I wander out under the sky
How Jesus the Saviour did come for to die
For poor on'ry people like you and like I;
I wonder as I wander out under the sky

   I accept the account from the Gospels and believe that it all happened that way, but I am still left to wonder all of the whys.

   I see those packages under the tree, all wrapped up with tags and bows. I see a package with my name on it, and I wonder what it contains.

   God, out of His love for us, gave us His Christmas Gift 2,000 years ago.

   And in the early morning, out under a dark cloudy sky, I still wonder.

   And I pray that God might break through the clutter and glitter of this Christmas season with a fresh awareness of His goodness and provision for all of us.

   And that all that Wonder would be a prelude to pure Joy.

   And that the Carol that all of us can sing with gusto will be:

   Joy to the world! The Lord is come.
Let earth receive her King
Let every heart
Prepare Him room
And Saints and angels sing
And Saints and angels sing
And Saints and Saints and angels sing