Day 9
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
Romans 8:15
There aren’t many places more magical than New York at Christmas. The lights. The window displays. The crowds, the hustle, the incessant honking. And the crowds—okay, maybe it’s not perfect. But I learned something walking through those crowds one year. With little kids, there was never a time I wasn’t holding someone’s hand. And I noticed every time we crossed a street, as that intimidating crowd approached us, the grip on my hand got a lot tighter. My kids knew the safest place to be was as close to their father as possible.
By simply squeezing my hand a little tighter as we walked across the streets of Manhattan, my kids reminded me that this year, I too will be intimidated by situations that look big and scary. They may even look like they could separate me from my Father. At some point this year, I’ll be walking into something, blind to what’s on the other side—and that’s when I’ll need to hold onto my Father a little tighter.
This year I’ll have to choose: do it on my own, or trust God and let him guide me safely through—even if I can’t see how. The temptation will be to navigate the oncoming crowd alone, to let go of God, to stop praying and seeking him in his Word, to just “get through it.”
But that’s not what Christmas is about. At Christmas we celebrate the coming of the Messiah, the coming of the one who will make a way back to our Father, the one who removes our fears and gives us confidence in the Spirit of adoption into God’s family.
This Christmas, join me in committing to hold onto our Father even tighter. We are fellow heirs with Christ and our father knows the way; he sees to the other side. He can handle the crowds!
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Catch up Days 1-8 of our Christmas Devotional here.