December 18, 2024
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| ps from ps We are roughly a week away from Christmas, depending on when you are reading this. And you probably have a ton of things to do and get ready for. Maybe you had a plan for this week….month…year and it’s about to get sliced up by other circumstances? Like it did for Joseph. Maybe you’ll be asked to do some monumental thing this week and you’ll pause…redirect…and realize it’s part of God’s awesome plan? Like Mary had to do. Maybe you didn’t have much to do this week outside of the normal vocational routine, but sense you might be called to travel to see something amazing? Like the shepherds were. Maybe you thought everything was fine in your house? It was a little bit dirty and smelly and needed some freshening…and then a whole extra family showed up to stay with you! Like the animals in the barn had happen. The players used in God’s new entrance in the world were just regular folks, doing regular things. And when they realized they were part of God’s redemptive story for the world, it sure changed their week. Read their story again (at the bottom of the email). And imagine yourself in it. Imagine your week this week being in it. And in doing that, I hope you will see God’s story come alive right here and right now. In your prep. In your cleaning. In your travel. In your gatherings. In your shopping. In your wrapping. They didn’t think they’d be a part of a story of this magnitude. But they were that week. And so are we…this week. Lord, help me embrace this week as sacred Amen. Still in One Peace,ps Luke 2 – In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 All went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah,[a] the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host,[b]praising God and saying,14 ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours!’[c]15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.’ 16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. |
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