That’s what the last couple years for Perry has felt like. Starting in 2021 with a 90% blockage in his Widow-Maker artery. But Perry can honestly say, “I’m thankful for every hardship.” What??  It’s because of what God does in us through our suffering. That he can’t do any other way.

For some, Christmas is not the most wonderful time of the year. Shawna asked a friend how she could pray for her and she immediately teared up. Jesus, Immanuel, Joy of the world, is with us in our sadness too.

Perry and Shawna listener Brian texted them in September saying, “Please pray for me, I have a really bad disease.” And 3 months later Brian was gone. Perry went to pay his respects this past Monday and as he walked back to his car it felt like death was on him like a heavy blanket. The blanket lifted as he thought of some words of hope from Aslan!

Everything seems bigger at Christmastime. The good things seem better. The hardships seem greater. Christmas doesn’t create our problems or improve our lives – it simply amplifies what already is. Christmas was never intended to magnify us. This Christmas let’s magnify the One Christmas is all about.

Before Perry was 25, God had blessed him with some amazing open doors for the Kingdom. And then, that season was over and he found himself cleaning toilets. Super humbling. It wasn’t anything Perry had chosen. But for Jesus he gave up all his glory willingly, for us!

Jesus’ birth was not His beginning. He always has been and always will be. Jesus came to give us eternal life. Only an eternal being could offer an eternal gift.