It’s almost the end of 2020. For many it’s been a really tough year. Maybe you’re just ready to leave it all behind, with hopes of a better 2021.
I found out last week that I had COVID. As I was getting up on Sunday, December 13, I realized it was the first Sunday in 2020 that I wouldn’t be able to help lead the corporate worship at Woolsey. I really loved the Christmas songs the church was going to be singing, but a different song came to my mind that morning. It wasn’t a Christmas song at all. It was a song I had learned as a young boy, that we sang more often around Thanksgiving… “Count your blessings, name them one by one.”
I didn’t start singing it right away, but I did start thinking, “I have so many reasons to praise God and rejoice in Him this Christmas season.” So, I decided to write some of them down, to “name them one by one.” As I thought about God’s blessings, I realized that there were just twelve days left til Christmas, so I decided to try to write one for each day. This is what I wrote:
12 Blessings to Praise God for this Christmas:
- My relationship with God—through Jesus and His atoning sacrifice, God’s indwelling Spirit, and adoption by the Father.
- God’s Word and His promises that I can trust every moment, and in every circumstance.
- Hope in Heaven because Jesus was born—to die and rise again!
- A church family that I love and that loves me so well.
- A wonderful wife and son – what joy their smiles bring to me!
- The beauty of God’s creation – sunshine, mountains, rivers, oceans, horses, cows, goats, deer, etc. (My son Micah reminds me daily to give thanks that God made all these different animals. What an amazing and interesting world!).
- A warm home on cold days.
- Friends and laughter.
- Good food (especially when I can taste it!).
- Music – and that the Christmas season has its own special songs to celebrate Jesus’ birth.
- Good books – I’ve just recently started re-reading CS Lewis’s “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.”
- Purpose for living every day – to glorify God and tell the Good News of Christ.
These are just a few of the blessings that I praise God for this Christmas. Why don’t you take a few minutes to write out a dozen blessings (or more!) as you praise God this Christmas. Your list might look a little different, but if you only wrote down the first one, I listed, you’d have more reason to rejoice than all of eternity would allow time for. Knowing God is the greatest blessing of all. Joy to the world the Lord has come!