![\"\"](\"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/christmas-2933008_960_720-450x450.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I’m not ashamed to admit I found it difficult to go<\/span>\u00a0into work on Wednesday after four solid days of Christmas. The transition w<\/span>as a bit jarring.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n And it got me to thinking “What if we were designed and built for Christmas?”<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Obviously, we like all the wonderful food we enjoy at Christmas, so I don’t think it’s a big stretch at all to surmise that God built into us an innate desire for Christmas cookies. Okay, so maybe I cannot point to a specific gene that causes cravings for green frosting and multi-colored sprinkles on a tree-shaped cookie, but it sure feels<\/em> like something I was born with.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n And what about gift-giving?\u00a0 What if we were actually designed and built to experience the joy of giving gifts? What if that thrill we get when we see someone enjoying a gift we gave them is something God put in us?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n What if the joy of just being with family and people we love is something God intended<\/em> us to experience?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n What if singing praises to Him and His only Son Jesus is something He intended us to enjoy for all eternity?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n What if He intended us to exist for all eterni<\/span>ty in peace and harmony and love with Him and with each other with a deep, deep everlasting joy in our hearts?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n What if that feeling we had as we stood in the church on Christmas Eve with a candle in our hand singing “Silent Night<\/em>” isn’t supposed to be a once-a-year thing but an eternal thing?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n What if heaven is like Christmas?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n What if it’s even better?<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Today’s Praise<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass.\u00a0The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald,\u00a0the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.\u00a0The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.\u00a0I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.\u00a0The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.\u00a0The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.\u00a0On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.\u00a0The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.<\/em> Revelation 21: 18-25 (NIV)<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m not ashamed to admit I found it difficult to go\u00a0into work on Wednesday after four solid days of Christmas. The transition was a bit jarring. And it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":16751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 20:20:58","action":"delete","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16750"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16750\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kinshipradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}