Christmas in July

OK so now you are going to know I have been watching (when I could) the Christmas in July movies on the Hallmark Channels. It’s just a feel good thing, call me any thing you want I readily accept the criticism. Point? It made me start to think of the Christmas story, the real one, the one that does not include a Santa.

Tonight I was thinking about the angel speaking to Joseph, who was in a quandary about what to do with his little fiance’ having just found out she was pregnant! He knew her as a good girl but the story about an angel coming to her seemed a little far out. He wanted to hide her out or send her to the local “Florence Crittenton” home for unwed mothers to keep her from being embarrassed. He was asleep when the angel spoke to him, in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to marry Mary, she hasn’t been unfaithful to you, her child is of the Holy Spirit. She will have a Son and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”Joseph shook himself out of sleep and remembered something he had studied from the writings of the prophet Isaiah “Behold the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which is translated “God with us.”Joseph’s knowledge of the scriptures gave him the assurance he needed, he got up and did what the angel of the Lord commanded, he took Mary as his wife, but he didn’t sleep with her until after Jesus was born.

Several things came to mind, “His name is Jesus because He will save our sins”,pure and simple. HE will save our sins. Then, “Immanuel, God is WITH US!”He is WITH us! Then I remembered a scripture in Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.

God had a plan, Mary and Joseph listened and the reward was that they were the human vessels that parented the very Son of God. Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 

Our plans may not be the grandiose plan of birthing God made flesh, but in our own sphere of influence, we are very important.

You may be the person that brings joy to the hopeless, faith to the helpless, glad tidings to those feeling lost and alone.

Psalm 139:13-16 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, the days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day. 

God knew you before you were born and there is a plan for you. Listen to your heart, pay attention to your dreams, in your prayers ask God to reveal His secrets to you. You may think that you are nothing, re-read the Psalm and know that if God knew you before you were born, there was a purpose for your life, you are loved. I used to think I knew God’s plan for my life, but everyday evolves and brings something new to my attention. Sometimes it is as simple as helping someone take a bath, helping to pull a loose tooth, fixing a meal that makes someone’s day a little more special; then there is the person that needs a call of encouragement, another needs a laugh, simple things. The most special time for me though, is when one of you writes to me and says that what I have said made a difference in your life, there’s nothing better than that!

Merry Christmas in July!