Lucky or Blessed?

As we move through the New Year holiday season, I feel like there’s some little “Hallmark” holiday we are celebrating every month at daycare. New Years, Valentines, St. Patrick’s Day, Spring Time, Easter … the list goes on! & honestly, I LOVE it! I love all the cute little crafts my toddler brings home and the fun themed lunches we get to provide to just share some extra magic with them. But this week as I was unpacking shamrock shaped cookie cutters from an Amazon box, my husband had a good question. 

How do all of these little holidays share the Love of God or take away from it? 

Last year, we really wrestled with Halloween and decided as a family we could and would celebrate fall harvest, but that Halloween was not going to be a holiday in our home. This year, that same conviction is now being brought up around all other holidays. 

Luckily, Cecil Ray goes to a Christian daycare, so Valentines was all about how much Jesus loves them. They got cute little lambs and red or pink John 3:16 bracelets. So, honestly, the conversation didn’t even come up, because well, God is love and that love was on the forefront of the celebration. 

But with St. Patrick’s day … it’s a little tricky.

How do we tie leprechauns, shamrocks, rainbows to pots of gold, and the idea of Luck to Christianity? 

To make things more complicated … Every month / holiday I make a new finger, hand, or footprint craft for the grandparents … and I had to resort to Google and Pinterest to find something for March that was “Christian” friendly and not just “lucky.” I remember starting the craft and Andrew saying remember what Margie says before you get caught up in the heat of the holiday. 

& for reference, Margie is an elder at my home church. She’s known me, loved me, and prayed for me my whole life. This has carried into my marriage and my motherhood, so she’s important in our church but also in our lives. & Margie says a lot of things. She has no problem sharing her thoughts or her beliefs. But this particular thing Andrew was referring to is something she says that he has loved from the minute he heard it. 

“Christians aren’t lucky, they’re blessed.” 

It seems like such a simple phrase but when you really sit back and think about the number of ways we use “luck” in every day vernacular it’s a lot. & if you trade that out to blessed, all of a sudden you are giving God glory throughout your life and casually sharing your testimony and his love more than you realize. It’s something that has greatly resonated in our family and has caused ‘luck’ to be a word we avoid. After all, everything we do should be to His glory and His Kingdom not just some random happy coincidence. 

With that background, the stress over picking the right monthly craft, and wondering how we can or if we should celebrate St. Patrick’s day really got me thinking.

What was the true meaning of this holiday? And can I use this holiday to share the Gospel? 

I think about the details of the Bible, the thought, the planning, the orchestrating God does to perfectly align so many different pieces and it’s so amazing … the idea of luck or happenstance … it just isn’t the case with God. 

He is Omnipresent. 

He is Omnipotent. 

With God there is no luck, just His Plan and His purpose for His Glory. 

I think back to the story of Elijah and the widow with the small amount of oil and flower in a famine and both lasting. Her son passing and Elijah waking him through prayer. These moments aren’t happenstance. We can dive deeper into 1 Kings and think about King Ahab’s death and all the variable factors that had to take place … those factors would not have lined up without God. 

So as a Christian it’s clear to me that luck just isn’t a thing.

Divine planning and intervention followed with God’s Blessings are what guide my life. 

That noted, I think it’s important to give this holiday some attention. Although I can’t get behind the “lucky” part of it all and the little leprechauns with pots of gold… Saint Patrick was actually an incredible historical figure. 

He was kidnapped as a boy, taken to Ireland, escaped, found Jesus, and then went back to Ireland to be a missionary. 

The really cool part - he used a Shamrock to explain the trinity! The shamrock has 3 distinct parts all in one plant, so what better example of our God who is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 

So, my family isn’t celebrating luck and pots of gold or mischievous little leprechauns. A mischievous toddler is enough … but we are excited to talk about who Saint Patrick was, how he shared the Gospel with a shamrock, and how blessed we are to have the God we have orchestrating and blessing our lives. 

So to celebrate, I sent a bunch of shamrock cookies to daycare and spent extra time talking to Cecil about the clovers in our yard as we made a clover craft for the grandparents. 

Wear your green, and enjoy your Monday. But, don’t forget to look down, find a shamrock and relish in the love and plans God has for your life. 

You are loved. You are chosen. You are blessed. 

God’s Love & Mine, 

Christina