Christmas is a very sentimental time for me; not only is it a special holy time in the life of a christian, but it is also my birthday. Therefore, I attempt to keep my focus on the reason we celebrate instead of on the busy-ness. One of the ways that I try to do this is through books; Christmas books and lots of them!
I have repeated several this year: Shepherds Abiding (Jan Karon), Christmas in My Heart (Joe Wheeler). My devotional this year is a repeat too; The Power of a Christmas Prayer (Stormie Ormartian). Of all of the Christmas books that I have read this season this devotional is hands down the most amazing. It puts you in the middle of the lives of Elizabeth, Mary, Zacharias and Joseph. You are able to feel the excitement that Elizabeth and Zacharias felt upon hearing that they would be parents. You are put in the place of a young unmarried woman who finds herself pregnant and you struggle with Joseph to do the best thing in their situation.
I am a little behind in the reading ( I should be somewhere closer to the trek to Egypt). Today I was with the shepherds on the hills outside of Bethlehem. I saw the heavenly hosts, heard the angels as they sang, fell to my knees with wonder that the Lord God Almighty would find me worthy to hear such an announcement. I was (and am) amazed.
The shepherds were lowly people in their society. They were not important to anyone (except the owner of the flock). They made little money, had little power and little significance. They were nobodies. Honestly, there are days when I can relate.
But you know, God found them important enough to hear His heavenly announcement. He saw them as worthy enough to seek out the baby and his parents; to be among the first to worship the Emmanuel, God with us! Their job was to go and see without asking the reasons why. They were blessed because they went. This gives me great insight into the way God sees us. There are no lives without significance in the eyes of our Heavenly Father. We are precious to Him and of great value.
In our home, where we live daily with a child who is different in the eyes of society, we are faced with the chance that someone will look at our little one as less than worthy; insignificant. I have to be reminded that it was to the shepherds angels announced Jesus' birth; through the shepherds that news of Jesus' birth was spread; that shepherds were the first to humbly approach the stable to worship. These lowly men were granted the blessing of all time and through them others were blessed with the news.
Aiden is our shepherd!
I have heard the news that God loves even the lowly. I am seeing that I can live the life of a patient woman. As a family, we are learning to see miracles in the small things daily. I can see the face of Jesus in Aiden's eyes daily.
Friends, as you celebrate the birth of the Son of God, Emmanuel, remember that no one is outside the hand of God; not even the lowly. And on the days when you feel like you are lower than the shepherds remember that God uses the humble and gives them grace for everyday.
O, Come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!!
Christa
No comments:
Post a Comment