Our church is closed to in-person services until January 17, 2021. That’s a “downer” for me personally. Seeing the faces (even the masked ones!) of my friends at church is so encouraging and to be able to be together means a lot. So, I’m guessing some of us are hurting.
Into this disrupted Christmas I want to share 10 daily devotionals to lift your spirits. Today is the FIRST ONE! Enjoy:
Each year at this time we receive a wonderful gift in the mail from our government officials: “TAXES DUE.” I hate those letters. They always seem to come at a most unfortunate time.
Luke 2:1-5 says, “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered … and Joseph also went up from Galilee … to Bethlehem because he was from the lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed.”
It strikes me as interesting that the first Christmas came in the backdrop of Government intrusion … a DECREE … that was disruptive to the Holy Couple. Loading up a nearly-due Betrothed on the whim of Caesar would have elicited much complaining from me. But, off they went, down dusty paths to their God-arranged perfect plan.
We are creatures of habit and we thrive when what we expect to happen does in fact happen. But, many years ago in my seminary training an older professor said something like, “don’t begrudge life’s interruptions because it is there you will find God at work in unexpected and marvelous ways.”
So it was that first Christmas, and so it shall be this Christmas.
Prayer … “Dear God, it is 10 days now until Christmas and I feel jostled and dislodged from what I have been expecting for Christmas this year. I pray that You would surprise me with with some unexpected and marvelous Grace. Other’s have intruded into my ordered and normal routines, so I invite You to do the same. In Jesus’ name, amen.”