Mentally fried. Feel like I could possibly be coming down with something yet again. But I couldn’t let the day go by without the posts…and a little time to process.
I have to admit I have not read today’s reading. What with 2 church services, getting a tree, a Christmas party and getting ready for the week…oh and spending time with the kiddos…it just didn’t happen.
Yet, as I was listening to the messages today …I was reminded about a book I always pull out this time of year – Max Lucado’s God Came Near. Highly, highly recommend it for I think it will again give you some different thoughts about the entire Christmas story. A chapter a day…maybe two at this point and you’ll be thru the whole thing before Christmas.
This morning’s sermon was about Mary’s song. You can find it here eventually…wait it is already there – so much faster than the guys over at Sanctuary. A very thought provoking sermon – especially for us that are parents and especially moms. Such a high calling that none of us are ready for…and to think Mary was maybe all of 15 when she got the call to be a mom….loco! Any who – to relate it to the book above, Max read “Mary’s Prayer” and “Twenty-Five Questions for Mary.”
This evening’s prayer…which will be up later…is here and entitled “The Night Before Christmas”. It was all about those silly shepherds we talked about a few days ago (or was that just yesterday)…and how they ran to find the baby. Except Scotty didn’t touch on the running…love how the same passage can be used to teach us so many different things…so much depth to this Bible. Any who, to relate it to the book read…well shucks I cannot find the chapter I thought for sure was there. You’ll just have to read the entire book to find it…at least I think it was in Max’s book…where he talks about how the angels appeared to the shepherds because they weren’t all busy with daily life…but were willing to be “interrupted”. This is mentioned briefly in Chapter 1…but I am positive there is more some where. Again, brain is fried tonight.
Yet, as I sat there at the end of the service tonight …these words – the ones at the end of this post that form a question- rang in my heart as something that has definitely had a “yes” answer for me this year. For just as I went about the business today with my kids (who are right now cuddled up together sleeping…ohhh!) – I found thoughts from the past Christmas seasons starting to flood my mind and my heart. I was definitely nostalgic as I headed into Sanctuary tonight – just thinking back over how much has changed in my life and in my kids’ lives this year. Just a short 12 months ago, as I went about the same tasks (minus Sanctuary)…I had no clue that I would let God completely, totally and undeniably interrupt my life to the magnitude He has this year. It still seems rather loco to think back to where I was and where I am now. On the brink of yet another year, in yet another new place (must be like number 20 or so for my life time), with a slew of possibilities laying before me. The start of seminary just on the horizon (am I really going to seminary? That seems loco in-and-of itself!), a dream of owning my own “community center” becoming more and more of a possible reality in the distant future… and my heart to be totally and utterly in love with the Man who I owe it all to…my first love…the one that came down from “heaven to earth to show the way”….to make me, little ol’ me the reason for the season…I cannot really comprehend it all. All that He has done for me this year when I took one little but gigantic step of faith some time ago and said in so many words, “let it be…”
Here are the words I mentioned above…and are waiting for you to answer:
