Dear Lord; Happy Christmas Eve Father!<\/p>\n
When I think of Christmas Lord, so many things come to my heart\u2026<\/p>\n
Hope\u2026<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Love\u2026<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Peace\u2026<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Joy\u2026<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
And an overall sense of Wonder.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
And yet, with all of the situations that have surrounded me throughout this Blessed Season Father, I\u2019ll admit that much of that child-like excitement has felt quietly subdued this year\u2026<\/p>\n
However this morning as we talked Lord, You breathed some life back into my weary spirit.<\/i><\/p>\n
Today Father, I asked You a very pointed question and You very clearly answered it\u2026 Although I\u2019ll admit Your response wasn\u2019t even on my radar\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cLord\u2026 You know my heart hasn\u2019t been in the right place this Season, and for that I\u2019m truly sorry.\u00a0 I need You more than ever Father\u2026 Please tell me what You want of me this Christmas\u2026 What do You want me to learn?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
And in the prayerful silence that followed Lord, You Blessed me with an answer\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cForgiveness, Phil\u2026\u201d<\/b>\u00a0 You whispered\u2026 \u201cFor yourself most of all.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
Silence returned as I grappled with Your intent\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n
Forgiveness??\u00a0 At Christmas??<\/p>\n
And then Father, in a moment of realization reminiscent of the Grinch\u2019s heart enlargement it came to me\u2026<\/p>\n
Christmas is all about forgiveness.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
In the midst of our pain, our sin, and our brokenness Lord,<\/p>\n
On that Silent Night so many years ago,<\/p>\n
You came among us in the humblest of ways\u2026<\/p>\n
That by Your life we could know Your will for us,<\/p>\n
And by Your blood we would be\u2026<\/p>\n
Forgiven.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n \u201cJesus said, \u201cFather, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.\u201d And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.\u201d \u2013 Luke 23:34 (NIV)<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The redemption of our world\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n All began in a lowly manger.<\/i><\/p>\n And today Lord, as I sought the light which beckoned the Magi You parted the clouds around my heart and let me see…<\/p>\n That I\u2019d allowed my circumstances to define me, and permitted my self-imposed feelings of guilt and disappointment to divert me from that Holy Pilgrimage.\u00a0 And that for me to begin that journey forward Father, You needed me to let go of it\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n To forgive myself, as You forgave us all.<\/i><\/p>\n So as Christmas day approaches Lord, I yearn to meet You with a lighter heart; to rest by the manger\u2019s side and know that sense of newness and hope.\u00a0 To leave those burdens which keep me from You along that tired path, and renew my spirit with the peace You ushered in that Holy Night.<\/p>\n Come Lord Jesus…<\/p>\n ~Phather Phil<\/p>\nPin It<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Lord; Happy Christmas Eve Father! When I think of Christmas Lord, so many things come to my heart\u2026 Hope\u2026 Love\u2026 Peace\u2026 Joy\u2026 And an overall sense of Wonder. And yet, with all of the situations that have surrounded me throughout this Blessed Season Father, I\u2019ll admit that much of that child-like excitement has felt […]<\/p>\nPin It<\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[266,467,35,328,3168,269,2381,2392,2375],"class_list":["post-2419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-emails-to-god","tag-christmas","tag-christmas-eve","tag-forgiveness","tag-holy-night","tag-holy-pilgrimage","tag-jesus","tag-lowly-manger","tag-manger","tag-silent-night"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Blue-Christmas-Nativity-Background-1-Cropped.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p18mMc-D1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2419"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2420,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2419\/revisions\/2420"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![Pin It<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dear Lord; Happy Christmas Eve Father! When I think of Christmas Lord, so many things come to my heart\u2026 Hope\u2026 Love\u2026 Peace\u2026 Joy\u2026 And an overall sense of Wonder. And yet, with all of the situations that have surrounded me throughout this Blessed Season Father, I\u2019ll admit that much of that child-like excitement has felt […]<\/p>\nPin It<\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[266,467,35,328,3168,269,2381,2392,2375],"class_list":["post-2419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-emails-to-god","tag-christmas","tag-christmas-eve","tag-forgiveness","tag-holy-night","tag-holy-pilgrimage","tag-jesus","tag-lowly-manger","tag-manger","tag-silent-night"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Blue-Christmas-Nativity-Background-1-Cropped.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p18mMc-D1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2419"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2420,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2419\/revisions\/2420"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.phatherphil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/pinterest.com\/pin\/create\/button\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.phatherphil.org%2F%3Fp%3D2419&media=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.phatherphil.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F12%2FBlue-Christmas-Nativity-Background-1-Cropped.jpg&description=Inspirations+from+Phather+Phil+-+\"){kind=link}