By: Carole Lynne Haines 

“I’m too old and beyond hope. Go and redeem some younger, more promising creature, and leave me to keep Christmas in my own way.”  

(Alastair Sim: A Christmas Carol, 1951) 

I have been watching the same Christmas movies every year for a long time. The quote above is from my favorite one. Ebenezer Scrooge is a character I seem to identify with deeply, and no one can play him better than Alistair Sim. I love his transformation from a greedy, selfish tyrant into someone with a generous heart and soul. We see this theme in “The Grinch who stole Christmas,” as well. Life’s trials and heartaches can make us softer and more dependent on Jesus. or they will harden us. I have had a mixture of both happen in me, like mixed precipitation. Just one degree of difference where I live, and you can have snow and ice, freezing rain or just cold rain. There is nothing more dangerous, weather-wise, than black ice. You can’t see it at all. When this thin layer of moisture has landed upon below freezing asphalt and frozen instantly. Your car tires hit that ice and you go sliding. There is no stopping you, your brakes don’t work, you can’t steer, nothing helps but giving up control while praying to drift to a stop before hitting something. 

Life has felt a bit like that for me, I just hit so many slippery spots and lost control, slipping and sliding toward disaster, one after another. But God stopped me from crashing into things, for the most part. Yet my heart has become a bit like black ice, with a thin layer of self-protective sheen upon it. 

Have you ever wondered if we could become too old and set in our ways to change, to become better than we are? I found myself pondering that question this morning and was blessed by the Lord with this answer: 

For a thousand years in Your sight 
Are like yesterday when it passes by, 
Or like a watch in the night. (Psalm 90:4) 

I feel so much hope when I read that verse of Scripture above. It reveals to me that God is not bound by time, as we are. A thousand years for God are like yesterday or a watch in the night. He is eternal and so is His work. That means all His work is not bound by time either, including us. Our transformation has nothing to do with chronological time, year to year. It is relational to Him. He is growing us up more and more into the image of His son, Jesus. We can take deep breaths of hope from that. No matter how old we are, God is still growing us up, still transforming us. 
¹⁰ For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10) 

 God promises that the work He has begun in us He will be faithful to complete. (Phil: 1:6) As believers in Jesus, He is forever drawing us closer to Himself and making us into the beloved image of His Son. We are learning to be like Jesus, in our thoughts, words and deeds, every day for the rest of our lives.  That is so hopeful and encouraging.  
God is never going to give up on us. He is never going to throw us away. He will keep bringing us back to that same sin, flaw, or failure; and He will walk us through it into victory. No matter how long it takes, He will finish His work. Don’t give up on yourself, I’m not giving up on me either. So many people have thrown me away, but God never will. I am too high maintenance for some people, with that thin frozen veneer over my heart, but not for God. He will finish His good work in me, and in all who are His children. The key to this transformation is yielding and surrendering. I have learned a lot about not being able to change myself. Behavior modification is not the way of God, that is the way the world tries to change. God deals with the heart, starting all His changes there.  

We will look at these avenues of change, both yielding and surrendering, in the next few posts. Meanwhile, rest in His promises dear believers, all of you who desire maturity and change in your life now and forever. 

“Long lay the world in Sin and Error pining ‘til He appeared, and the soul felt its worth.” (O Holy Night) 

*I am including a live link to my husband’s latest song, OUT AT THE EDGE, to encourage you even more.
Just click on the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpKjHFaF3Tw

 Merry Christmas everyone. Til next time, rest in Him.