A Christmas Beginning
Tis the season and I hope you are ready. I hope I'm ready! Gifts wrapped, menu planned, perfect gifts chosen, pies made, the freezer full! However, it feels weird in many ways, doesn't it? It's a down-scaled Christmas celebration this year. There are far less programs, less gatherings, less social contact, less of a lot of things we hold dear.
One thing that hasn’t changed is that kids are still asking Santa for what they want! And our young children want to know how much longer until we get to open presents? Can Christmas ever arrive? So, what do you ask for this Christmas? Are you excited and anxious for the day to arrive and for the festivities to begin?
We all look forward to December 24 and 25, but I believe the giving of Christmas is in the beginning. This month I've been contemplating that Christmas is today not some awaited day. Christmas is seeing and accepting what God is giving. Christmas is God's hand extended, offering us new birth, a new way, new understanding. It's all occurs in the beginning.
In the beginning, He created the earth
In the beginning, Mary chose to trust and believe
In the beginning, Joseph chose to trust and follow
In the beginning, the shepherds saw and rushed to worship
In the beginning, a stranger offers us bread...
30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” Luke 24:30-32
He BEGAN TO GIVE IT TO THEM…it was in the beginning of them accepting the bread that their eyes were opened and they recognized him.
•Not after the meal was over
•Not after they were completely full
•Not after they fully understood
It’s when HE BEGINS in us that we start to truly see him. It’s the beginning of new belief. The beginning of a new step of faith. When Moses began to walk toward and went over to see the burning bush, God spoke. When Moses began and stretched out his hand over the Red Sea, it parted. It's in the beginning of our faith steps that God moves.
I tend to live my life not satisfied with what He is offering me or beginning in me. I want the whole loaf! Please Lord, don’t piecemeal me along. What’s the outcome? Answer my prayers today! Let me see you, fully see your plans and understand everything in this moment. I’m tired and I’m tired of trying to understand. Often my faith waits to see the whole picture before I finally trust and accept His leading. That’s not faith; that’s my good ole control.
But maybe we can remember it’s in the first small step of accepting that one piece of bread. Accepting the small, gracious gift. The small beginning He offers me is actually the whole, complete gift. He begins, I accept, and then I see.
What am I asking for Christmas? The new beginning. His new beginning in me.
