Our Truly Grateful Christmas of 2024
If God's blessings seem dim, reflect on Gaza's people and God's Son.
"Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it's less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you've lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that's good." — Elizabeth Edwards
This LORD’S DAY, Sunday, December 22, 2024, begins a week of deep gratefulness.
It’s Christmas.
We’re all grateful for the LORD Jesus Christ and His coming to earth (Emmanuel, “God with us”), for the blessings of His New Covenant, and the goodness and glory of being a follower of Jesus, the Messiah of the world.
This weekend, I spent three days with a film crew from NBC News. The documentary they’re recording will come out later in 2025. I’m bound to non-disclosure until the documentary is made public.
The NBC crew I worked with was amazing. This crew won the International Award for Broadcast Documentary this year for a story of a family surviving in Gaza.
Before the NBC crew came to Enid to film this weekend, I watched their documentary. I encourage you to take five minutes to watch the brief award-winning documentary of Mohammad Al Yazji. This boy lost his mother in an Israeli airstrike, and the fate of his father is still unknown. As the eldest in his family, 13-year-old Mohammad is left alone to care for his seven siblings in Gaza.
I can’t think of a better way to help us appreciate the LORD’S blessings in our lives than to see how others around the world are living during the 2025 holidays.
Pray for Mohammad and his siblings. Do what you can to help others this Christmas.
And know that your LORD is on His throne, and His love and eternal blessings are boundless to you and yours, regardless of your current circumstances.
With prayers for the people of Gaza, and a heart full of gratefulness for the gift of the LORD Jesus Christ, Rachelle and I wish you and yours a Merry Christmas.
I have been praying for all those there who are struggling to have food and water. I will specifically pray for he and his siblings.
Thank you for sharing and keep us posted about the documentary.
I love hearing people's stories....it is truly amazing and humbling..... I will be praying for them