The Day After Jesus’ Birth

Mary woke up early the morning after Jesus was born with the glow of His birth lingering around her. The memory of the shepherds’ stories of angels singing in the night sky brought back memories of the angel who stood before her and told her she would conceive and give birth to a son who would be the Son of the Highest. “And you shall call His name Jesus.” Luke 1:31 NKJV.
She pondered in her heart that early morning the words the angel had spoken to her and remembered how she had replied. “Let it be to me according to your word.” Luke 1:38.
And now in the light of day, looking down at the newborn Baby who had come into the world just as the angel had said he would, she had no trouble believing that the Baby was the Son of God. She knew she was a virgin when she conceived the Baby Jesus. She knew and God knew. She still didn’t know how it had taken place. She only knew that God had done what He said He was going to do. He had fulfilled His promise to her through the words of the angel that day.
She must have wondered just what was expected of her now that the Baby was born. Maybe she expected the angel to return and give her more instructions, but when he didn’t, each day she did what every other new mother did. She fed her Baby, dressed Him, and taught Him day by day. And when He was old enough, His step-father Joseph began teaching Him and taking Him to the synagogue. And she pondered in her heart the ability of Joseph to raise a son who wasn’t his as if He were his very own.
“And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him.” Luke 2:40
All because one woman Mary in faith said “Yes” to God.

O Come Let Us Adore Him

 

Our family tradition revolved around the music of the Christmas. We sang it at church, at school in the special Christmas program, and all around the house.

I took piano lessons so I learned to play all the Christmas carols. I was in chorus in school so I learned to sing all the Christmas carols, at least the alto part. Of course, to learn the alto you have to hear and learn the melody of the song.

The songs made up of sounds and words are the songs of the birth of Christ. They were written by men, empowered by the Holy Spirit, for people to sing.

We sing, “Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright, ….Christ the Savior is born, Christ the Savior is born.”  What a proclamation of the birth of the Savior, Jesus Christ.

We sing, Gloria in excelsis Deo,” meaning Glory to God in the highest, and we are, in fact, giving God the highest praise.

We sing, “Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her King,” and we are joining with the angels who sang to the shepherds on the hillside that night.

“O come, all ye faithful, Joyful and triumphant, O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem. Come and behold Him, Born the King of Angels! O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.”

Let me translate that into Okie English from Old English.

O come, all ye faithful. That means “Everyone who is full of faith in Christ Jesus, you come to Bethlehem. Come and see Him, the one who was born as the King of angels.”

O come, let us adore Him, let us love Him, let us sing give the glory and honor and praise to Christ the Lord, Savior, King of kings and Lord of lords, the majestic God of all creation.

O come, let us adore Him, let us praise Him, let us magnify His Holy Name, Jesus Christ the Lord.

 

 

 

 

Word Pictures

 

The last time Mama took a picture was using my iPhone camera to take a picture of me after I had taken a picture of her. Mom’s uncle gave her a box camera when she was 13 years old and she still had all of those pictures when she died.

When she was about 85 years old, she quit taking pictures. In fact, even before then, she often told us girls to take the pictures for her. I bought her at least two cameras that she gave back to me. Both were point-and-click 35mm film cameras that took great pictures, but she just “passed the torch” on to us.

I’ve been looking through lots of old pictures the last few months. I have most of her pictures, and every time I come home from her house, I bring more pictures. My dining table is full of shoe boxes and plastic bags full of photos.

Mom had one pet peeve. If she turned a photo over, she expected the names to be written on the back. And now I am so glad she did that, especially if the photo is someone I don’t know.

I have often wondered why our family is so attached to photos, but I’ve decided it’s because photos are memory joggers.

The authors of the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—drew word pictures of the events in Jesus’ life. They were able to show us, in words, the way Jesus lived His life, from birth till death, involving the plan God laid out for our salvation. Even those Old Testament writers used word pictures to reveal God’s plans to us.

God knew that we would grow forgetful about the things in our life that were vitally important for us, so He made sure that those things were revealed to us in His word, and then He told us how to remember, since we couldn’t take a photograph of them.

“Always remember what is written in that book of law. Speak about that book and study it day and night. Then you can be sure to obey what is written there. If you do this, you will be wise and successful in everything you do.” Joshua 1:8 ERV.

 

The Best Thing

What do you believe is the best thing that can happen to you this year? Winning the lottery? Falling in love with Mr. Right?  Graduating? Moving into that special Dream House? Having a baby? Lose Weight? Get out of debt? “If I could just have _____, I would be happy.”
We all have hopes and dreams, longings to be fulfilled which we hope will bring happiness. We believe that if this or that happens, we can finally be happy. The word ‘happiness’ and the word ‘happening’ both come from the same root word. These words indicate that circumstances determine how we feel. We expect to find happiness based on our circumstances.
However, God steps into the midst of what is happening when we pray “Father, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10. And that changes everything.
This is one of the most powerful prayers, because you are handing the whole thing over to God. When you pray this way, you are telling God, “I trust you to give me the very best thing for me, the thing that maybe I wouldn’t pick out for myself. I trust you, Father, to know more about me and this situation than I do, so I will leave it all up to you. Lord, let it be unto me according to your will, your word.”
I choose to be happy, right here, right now, this very moment. Happiness is a choice. In spite of the circumstances, I can love my spouse. In spite of troubles, I can have joy. In the midst of war, I can have peace.
This is the best thing that could ever happen to me, not just this year, but the next, and the one after that, and the one after that, until the day I die.
I choose God’s will and then I choose to be happy.

Lot’s Wife

Have you ever wondered why Lot’s wife turned and looked back after she had been told not to?

She isn’t mentioned in Genesis until after Abram and Lot went their separate ways because they each had so many cattle that they were having a hard time feeding them all. Abram gave Lot his choice of the land and Lot chose the Jordan Valley, because it was well watered. So Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom.

The next time we hear of Lot he had been taken captive by some foreign kings and Abram had to rescue him. But he went right back to Sodom because when we next read of him, Lot is there at the city gate, when the angels of the Lord show up.

By this time, Lot is married and has two virgin daughters and two sons-in-law who were engaged to the daughters. He must have married a woman from Sodom.

She was probably born in Sodom. Her mother and father, brothers and sisters, all her earthly possessions, were there in Sodom. I can hear her now. “Why are you making me leave my family? What about my mother’s china and crystal, and the embroidered tapestries that hang in my home? What about my lovely garden with roses and sweet vegetables?”
“Well, I don’t want to live like Abraham and Sarah, in a dusty tent, drinking out of goatskins. Why do we have to leave it all right now? I’ve got it all fixed up just the way I like it. Well, I might have to go, Lot, but I don’t have to like it.”
I can just hear her griping to Lot as they and their daughters leave Sodom. Then just as they got far enough away from the city to be safe, Lot’s wife just had to look back one more time. Yes, she heard the angels just as Lot did, but surely the angels didn’t mean her. Surely what they said didn’t apply to her. She didn’t intend to go back, she only wanted to see her home one more time but that final look back cost her life.

“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?
Mark 8:36 NIV.

She loved it all too much. She paid with her life.

No Monsters

Do you enjoy monster movies? Not me. I used to hide my face at the scariest scenes when I went to the movies with my husband, but now that we watch most of our movies at home, I just go in the other room and let him watch them alone. We now have 3 TVs in our house, so I can watch the news while cooking supper and watch what I want when he is watching some monster movie.

This is the time of year that thoughts turn to monsters. For some people, Halloween is their favorite time of year. They love to decorate their house with fall leaves and pumpkins, fake spider webs and black paper bats. They set out bowls of candy for the children who come trick-or-treating.

I always have candy to give out and delight in seeing  the trick-or-treaters in their costumes. When my children were little, my sister and I spent hours making costumes—angels, Superman, Chew Baca from Star Wars, Indian maidens, but we never dressed our kids up as monsters.

Sometimes when my grandsons used to spend the night, I had to tell them, “There are no monsters at Mimi’s house. No such things as monsters. No monsters under the bed, no monsters in the closet, and no monsters in the darkness.”
There are no monsters, but there is evil, pure evil. Satan is evil and the father of evil. He is out to get you. He wants to “steal, kill, and destroy.” (See John 10:10.)

There are evil spirits and evil people in the world, but not monsters. And I pray away those evil spirits and evil people, by the power of the Holy (good) Spirit and the Word of God. Satan is no match for the goodness and power of God.

 “No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; For He shall give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways.” 
Psalms 91:10-11 KJV.

My angels are always watching over me.