Merry Christmas!  And then you hear “Bah, Humbug!”  Well, that’ll just ruin your day.

My, my, you’ve got the Christmas Spirit.  You’re wanting to spread joy and good tidings, (and hot chocolate).  Then after a day of seeing scrooges, hearing all the bad, (spilling the hot chocolate and COFFEE!!) you’re ready to give up.

Your heart that was warm and toasty is now beginning to get cold, it’s turning bitter, it’s growing numb……… your heart is turning hard.   That’s what happens when exposed to the cold ,cold world.  You better find a way to “warm things back up”.

This is how I “warm things up” in the log house we’re building.  See all those pipes, tubings, pumps, electrical dodads.  Well, that’s infloor heating for ya!  The pipes are going through the concrete floors warming the floors up.  This radiates to me and you in the room.  It’s comfortable.  It’s warm.  It’s a pleasure especially when it was -9 degrees outside.  When Mike the plummer was explaining to me how it worked………… well, he must have seen my eyes glaze over.  He’s explaning how the boiler heats the water and the computer gizmo activates the valveamabob.  Then the whatchamacallit releases the thingamado………….shoot,….. my head is still hurtin’ from all the info.

So finally Mike says, “Just trust me, all you need to do is work the thermostat.  If you’re cold turn it up!”   Hey, I can understand that!!!  If I get cold, just turn it up.  Easy enough.

So, when you and I start feeling cold spiritually, do we “turn up the thermostat”?  Sounds easy enough.  But for some strange reason, (probably that we are human), we tend to stay in our own little world and grow cold.  Then grow colder.  Then grow bitter, then stone cold, then HARD!!

“Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;   you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused;   they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears,  understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them. Matthew 13:13-15

What Jesus is saying here is “I will heal you”.  He will make our lives better.  We hear but don’t understand. (Mike the plummer just as well to have been Jesus because I was hearing, but I sure ’nuff wasn’t understanding!!!)

Ok, how do we HEAR from God??   By Believing and trusting!  There are those two little words again.  Seems like they are always somewhere close by when it comes to taking a Christian journey in this world.  I can’t see or understand with my own eyes.  But, if I use my Heavenly Father’s eyes it gives me a whole new vision.  It restores my soul.  It warms my heart.  It gives me back my Christmas Spirit.  The true C H R I S T mas Spirit.

“Lord, I know sometimes these true stories I share with readers are really simple.  But you speak to me with these everyday happenings.  I’m asking that You speak to the one reading this prayer.  Give them the gift of seeing with Your eyes.  Give them a moment when they feel your presence in an everyday activity of their own.  Keep their heart from growing cold.  Let an opportunity happen today when they feel your “warmth” in their heart.  Amen”

See Ya!  Dan Ainsworth wilderness preacher