If We Make It Through December ...

"If we make it through December

Everything will be alright I know.

If we make it through December

we'll be fine." *

 

 

That song by Merle Haggard came out during one of our hardest years as a family in the mid 1970's.  My husband had just lost his job in Beaumont, TX and we were struggling to pay the bills and feed our five children.  Between the two of us we were delivering four paper routes ... I took the two routes in town and Dave drove the two in the rural areas.  It was the end of summer and we were coming up on the holidays and birthdays, and this song played over and over during those long nights throwing papers.  We'd meet back at the house just as daylight was peeking over the pine trees and we'd have about an hour before getting the kids up, dressed, fed and off to school.  During that hour I would almost always dissolve into tears of desperation ... and Dave would without fail turn my tears into giggles with his rendition of Merle Haggard's, "If we make it through December."  It became our theme song that year (I know ... not very spiritual .. but it fit!) 

 

Getting through Christmas and starting a new year became our goal ... we were holding onto the hope and promise that God would sustain us and provide for our needs.  We knew in our hearts that God was our source but this was the first time we really had to stand firm in our faith, looking neither to the left nor the right, and expect a miracle.   Within a few months Dave was working again.  We had much to celebrate that Christmas season and a brand new year dawned with renewed faith, restored hope and a strength of purpose that would see us through many more "December" moments.  We relied heavily on the Christian heritage our parents had passed on to us and learned to draw close to God in the storm.  We were just beginning to learn that God wanted us to live a life of victory ... not that we would not face battles ... but that we would come through them victoriously.  We had to make the choice to live close to God and let Him change our life. 

 

You may be facing a December moment in your life right now.  Perhaps a financial crisis similar to ours, or it may be a failing relationship,  a dreaded diagnosis, or some other desperate situation.  During these times, does it feel that God is unreachable?  Too far away to touch?  He's as close as the mention of His name.  Revelation 22:4 tells us that God's children will bear His name on their foreheads ... the prophet Isaiah tells us we will bear the name of God in our hearts and in the very fiber of our being. 

 

What is His name?   His name is whatever you are in need of at any given moment.

 

"Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. 

Is there anything too hard for Me?"

Jeremiah 32:27



 

There have been many other times since 1977 that we've had to hum that song under our breath and remember what God has done for us in the past.  We remind ourselves and each other that God's promises are true .. His grace is sufficient .. His mercy unfailing.   

 

"Fear not for I am with you; be not dismayed,

for I am your God. 

I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you,

I will uphold you

 with My righteous right hand."

Isaiah 41:10

 

Soon, your testimony will be in the mouths of others ...

 

"We have certainly seen that the Lord is with you." 

(Genesis 26:28a)

 

 

*Song, "If We Make It Through December," written by Merle Haggard