Hi, friends! This is Joni Eareckson Tada and welcome to Joni and Friends.
A stable. What an unusual place to be for Christmas. Oh, I’m not talking about the birth of Jesus in his stable. I’m talking about spending time in an actual stable now… during Christmas of all things. I did that once. I was a child, celebrating Christmas on the farm with my family. It was snowing and the pine trees were blowing in the wind. A grey-white haze made the barn at the far end of our driveway almost disappear. I leaned on my elbow looking out the window while my mom and sisters were in the kitchen. Christmas carols from the radio drifted into the living room where I was sitting, resting on the windowsill, staring at the snow and the barn in the distance.
Sometime during that afternoon while the sky grayed further, I pulled on my jacket and boots, and stuffed a few carrots and apples in my pockets, and hiked to the stable. Maybe I felt sorry for the horses in the barn. All of us were going to be opening Christmas presents that evening and I didn’t want the animals to be left out. Inside the stable it was quiet. I remember the sweet smell of hay, and the cozy odors of the horses. I gave each horse their gift of an apple or carrot and wished them a Merry Christmas.
There was something about the peace and quiet of that stable that warmed me through and through… as warm as though I were sitting by the fire back up at the farmhouse. Perhaps it was the beauty of solitude against the hustle and bustle inside the house. But somehow God spoke to me, and I knew as a child back then that I was making a Christmas memory which would last forever.
Friend, maybe you don’t live on a farm. Perhaps when you look outside your window you just see the backyard of your next-door neighbors. Or you could live in an apartment or a trailer. Maybe there are palm trees outside your kitchen door, or you could be in prison, or a hospital. Not many of us live near a stable, but I think you know what I’m talking about. Please, today, find that place to be apart, a place of quiet and solitude. It could be a window seat and a cup of tea. Perhaps it’s a walk through a nearby park with a Bible in hand. Whatever it is and wherever you are, please carve out time to get alone. Find a place of solitude against the craziness of this Christmas rush. And when you do, you can be certain the Christmas memory that you’ll create sharing with the Lord Jesus Christ and his Word will last, and last, and last for a lifetime.
Oh, and that reminds me, I’d like to hear your favorite Christmas memories – you can visit me later today on our radio page at joniandfriends.org. I just know you’ve got some memories that you treasure – and I’d like to hear them. Oh, and while you’re visiting our radio page, put in a request for your Christmas sampler… a CD of my favorite Christmas radio programs of the season. Share the CD with a friend or stuff it in a stocking or give it to someone who has to be in a hospital over the holidays. Just ask for it when you visit me on our radio page at joniandfriends.org. And, friend, have a blessed week getting ready for an absolutely wonderful Christmas… a Christmas when you just might make some new memories… memories of being alone, memories of solitude – maybe not in a stable – but by that window watching the snow fall in your backyard, enjoying the peace and the quiet and that time with your Savior, and because it is time with Jesus it’s a memory that I think will last and last and last for your lifetime.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 91376
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