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36. Prayer By the Christmas Tree - Wednesday Evening · Family Prayer Podcast

• 0:00
  Sitting right here after everyone else has gone to bed.
• 0:02
  Ahhhh… good evening, Grace Harbor.
• 0:06
  It’s Dan.
• 0:09
  I’ll bet some of you feel like you’ll never get to sleep tonight.
• 0:11
  On the way home from the Christmas Eve service,
• 0:12
  I saw my neighbor’s kids sprinting back and forth across their front lawn.
• 0:15
  It was pitch dark, below freezing,
• 0:17
  and they were still in their church clothes, but I get it!
• 0:20
  It’s an exciting night.
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  But let’s see if we can wind down together.
• 0:22
  I’m coming to you from my big comfy chair beside my Christmas tree.
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  This is my favorite chair in the whole wide world.
• 0:31
  It’s where I start most days
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  - drinking a cup of coffee, reading my Bible, and saying some prayers.
• 0:31
  It also just so happens to be right next to where we put our Christmas tree each
• 0:43
  year.
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  And so, during the month of December, I’m accompanied
• 0:48
  in the dark of
• 0:54
  the early morning hours by twinkling lights, ornaments full of meaning
• 1:06
  and memories, and the smell of a live tree.
• 1:09
  It’s also where I always end Christmas Eve night every year.
• 1:09
  The funny thing is that I’m probably the most tired out
• 1:13
  of everyone in the house,
• 1:17
  and my kids are more than likely
• 1:23
  still rolling around in their beds due to their excitement.
• 1:27
  But I like to pretend that I’m
• 1:32
  the last person in the world who’s awake.
• 1:36
  And this year, you’re here with me. As I sit here, I think back over the day.
• 1:37
  I especially love how the Christmas Eve services end when we sing Silent Night.
• 1:37
  As the song begins, we turn the lights off, and just one candle is lit.
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  Then we start to light each other’s candles,
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  and so as we sing, the room grows brighter and brighter.
• 1:42
  By the end, everyone is holding their candles
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  high in the air, and the sanctuary has a warm glow.
• 1:49
  It’s a beautiful reminder that when we share God’s love with each other,
• 1:54
  the light and love of God is multiplied, and we can light up the world!
• 1:58
  I also think back over the whole year.
• 2:01
  I know that’s more of a New Year’s thing for most people,
• 2:05
  but for me, I do it on Christmas Eve.
• 2:08
  I think about all the ways God has been with me
• 2:11
  through everything - good and bad - and I say a prayer of gratitude.
• 2:15
  And tonight, I’ve been holding in my mind and heart a prayer
• 2:19
  written by a friend of mine named Tanner Olson: “God,
• 2:23
  keep me from hurrying through all the things I hoped for.
• 2:28
  Amen.” Maybe a good way to respond would be to take some time together
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  and name what you’re most hoping for as Christmas comes tomorrow.
• 2:37
  As always, if you need more time, you can pause the podcast, and I’ll
• 2:40
  be right here when you get back.
• 2:52
  Tomorrow
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  sure is going to be exciting, isn’t it?
• 3:14
  And I’m sure it feels like you’ve been waiting forever for it to get here.
• 3:19
  If you’ve been with us here on the podcast over the last month,
• 3:23
  you know we’ve talked a bunch about waiting.
• 3:25
  What I love about Tanner’s prayer is that it names a challenge a lot of us have.
• 3:30
  When the thing we’ve been waiting for finally gets here,
• 3:34
  we face the temptation to rush through it.
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  Specifically on Christmas,
• 3:38
  you may be tempted to tear into all your presents right away.
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  You want to see *everything* and play with everything.
• 3:47
  And if you do that,
• 3:52
  you might have one
• 3:57
  big rush of excitement, but then it’s all over.
• 4:02
  Last year, my son was 16-months old at Christmas -
• 4:02
  so he was old enough to kind of get Christmas.
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  He got the hang of opening presents and seeing what was inside,
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  but he had no sense that there were more coming.
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  He had a brand new toy in front of him, and he wanted to play with that.
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  So, we let just let him play, and once it seemed like
• 4:13
  he was ready to move on, we surprised him with the next one.
• 4:17
  It took him basically all morning to open everything because he took his time.
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  Now, I’m not saying you need to do that tomorrow.
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  In fact, I’ll bet now as a two-year-old, he won’t be doing that again
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  this year either.
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  But I do think there’s a word of wisdom
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  in Tanner’s prayer that we can carry with us into Christmas.
• 4:35
  We’ve been waiting for this day so long.
• 4:38
  Don’t let either the excitement
• 4:41
  or the busyness of the day cause you to rush through it.
• 4:45
  When we slow down, even just a little bit, and pay attention to the people and
• 4:50
  activities around us, we might just notice that we’re in the middle of a blessing.
• 4:55
  Or, as one of my favorite TV shows once put it,
• 4:58
  we can recognize the “good old days” while we’re still in them.
• 5:02
  To close, let’s pray Tanner’s prayer one more time.
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  If you want to, you can close your eyes and fold your hands.
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  “God, keep me from hurrying through
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  all the things I hoped for.
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  Amen.” Ok, Grace Harbor.
• 5:19
  Get some sleep, if you can.
• 5:21
  Tomorrow’s a big day.