"Not All Empty"

You know about good intentions, don't you? I had the intention of writing this yesterday . . . . but here we are, a day later. And maybe there was a reason for it, since this is about a devotion I read, and I usually post things about faith of Faith Friday. So what is today? Friday.

I was reading a daily devotional for December 18 in the current "Our Daily Bread". It was meaningful to me, especially at this time of year when many of us might struggle with being alone for Christmas. My family all live a distance away and it rarely works out that they are able to be here for holidays. I am okay with that since I am a bit of a loner, but it is still always nice to have your family around at this time of year. We all dream of having the 'perfect' Christmas, but that rarely happens in real life, just in movies and pictures.

This devotion shows how profound children are. We need to listen (and really 'hear') to what they say. Here is the devotion based on Psalm 107:9:

Our granddaughter Julia spent the summer working in an orphanage in Busia, Uganda. On the final day of her internship, she went to the children to tell each one goodbye. One little girl named Sumaya was very sad and said to her, "Tomorrow you leave us, and next week the other aunties (interns) leave."

When Julia agreed that she was indeed leaving, Sumaya thought for a minute and exclaimed, "But we will be all empty. None of you will be left!" Again, Julia agreed. The little girl thought a few moments and replied: "But God will be with us, so we won't be all empty."

If we are honest with ourselves, we know that "all empty" feeling. It is an emptiness that friendship, love, sex, money, power, popularity, or success can never assuage -- a longing for something indefinable, something incalculably precious but lost. Every good thing can remind, beckon, and awaken in us a greater desire for that elusive "something more." The closest we get is a hint, an echo in a face, a painting, a scene . . . And then it is gone. "Our best havings are wantings," said C. S. Lewis.

We were made for God, and in the end, nothing less will satisfy us. Without Him, we are all empty. He alone fills the hungry with good things (Ps. 107:9)  -- by David Roper

"He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness." -- Psalm 107:9

Prayer -- Dear Lord, fill me with Your goodness and love. I desire nothing in heaven and earth but You. Without You, I have nothing. Thank You for the abiding satisfaction that we can find in You.
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God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself because it is not there.   --- C. S. Lewis

Christmas is more than Santa Claus and presents, Christmas trees, lights and tinsel, candy canes and sugar cookies. There would never have been a Christmas at all if it weren't for the greatest gift of all -- the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. If Christ isn't in Christmas, the holiday that bears His name, then there is no Christmas.