At Christmas time we think and sing about joy. Nehemiah wrote, . . . for the joy of the LORD is your strength (Nehemiah 8:10). When our joy should be full it is often lost in the cares of the world, things that make God’s word ineffective in our lives (See Mark 4:18-19). When this happens, we become dry. Consider the following message that came while I was using a power blower to remove fallen leaves from our driveway.

As I worked, I was praying about what I was suppose to write this month. Suddenly, for the first time in my life I realized leaves of the water oak tree were not all alike. They came from the same tree, but they had their own personal markings, shapes and sizes. At that moment a wind came, one stronger than my blower. It blew many of the leaves back to where they were before I started. This is when I realized that the Holy Spirit was revealing something special that I could pass on to you.

As you read this message remember that Jesus was born to redeem man and restore him, bringing him back into the unity of God, the unity Adam had before the fall. (See John 17: 18-23 & Genesis 3). If we are in unity with Jesus, we can also be in unity with each other. We must remember that the devil and the flesh of man are continually trying to disrupt this unity.

While I continued working to clear the driveway God revealed that Christians are like the leaves of the water oak tree. The leaves represent the tree that bore them just as Christians represent Jesus, “the tree of life.” Collectively, in unity and connected to the tree they look perfect, but they still have their own markings, shapes and sizes. However, this does not show until they become dry and lose their unity and joy of being connected to the tree.

We, therefore, must not allow ourselves to be blown by winds of doctrine (Eph. 4:14), and/or the cares of this world. If this should happen, we still have the Holy Spirit ready to blow us back on track. (Remember how the wind overpowered my power blower. It put the leaves back where they had been before I started clearing the driveway.) By keeping God’s word before our eyes and praising Him the Holy Spirit will help us maintain our Joy. Even in adverse conditions we can stand in our joy of the LORD, and cause other people to accept Jesus as their LORD.

We have added another outlet for this ministry. Because so many people are hurting, we placed our first “We Will Pray for You” forms in one section of a local hospital. Daily we find new names have been added to the form and JoAnn and I pray for these people by name. The program is working so well we will, with God’s help, expand into other areas of medical treatment. Please pray for us as we pray for other people, and pray for JoAnn’s complete restoration from the damage cancer, chemo and radiation did to her.

We Love you and wish you the happiest of holidays,

Dean and JoAnn Hubbard