So here we are… It’s Christmas time… and maybe life hasn’t turned out just like you had hoped or planned. (Somehow, Hollywood has made us think that everything should fall into place just because it’s Christmas. Because OF CHRISTmas, yes. However, it probably won’t all happen around December 25th. Right?)
But guess what?! God’s plans are so much better than ours, and HIS timing is impeccable .. especially when it seems as if our plans are failing at the moment.
Consider the people God chose to work through to do the greatest work in the world… think about them, what they may have been processing at the time… and then don’t give up. Who, but God, knows that what is disappointing or frustrating to you right now may end up being a blessing for many one of these days to come.
“He makes everything beautiful in His time.” Eccl. 3:11
John and Elizabeth, the faithful old barren priest-couple, their dreams for a houseful of children and grandchildren dashed and destroyed as birthdays and life changes overtook them.
Joseph the obedient-bent carpenter, his dreams of the simple, predictable life of work, hearth, and home shattered when the Angel revealed that his intended was carrying the Christ-Child.
Mary, the young innocent girl with a heart full of trust, her dreams for quiet marriage and family radically altered by the Angel-visitor’s message from God.
Mary’s parents… Joseph’s parents… family members… friends… onlookers… Though they listened to the testimonies of the messages of God delivered by divine interaction with these willing servants, they didn’t understand. Neither fully did the willing servants.
This was not the life any of them had planned for themselves, nor for their loved ones.
But it was God’s plan for their lives. And because of their trusting embrace, we are all saved.
If you are looking around at your calendar and your circumstances and thinking that especially at this Christmas season your life has not turned out as you planned… remember this, my friends:
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9 (NLT)
The Lord knows what He will work in and through you and your loved ones as you presently face today. Trials are tools when placed in the Master Carpenter’s hands, and the Creator of the World is creating something beautiful right now… in HIS time.
So like Mary, may we respond to the unanticipated twists and turns on this earthly soil,
“Let it be done to me according to what You have said.” (Luke 1:38)
Let It Be To Me, O Lord
(an original poem)
Let it be to me, O Lord.
I give my plans to Thee, O Lord.
Your ways are more than I can know
My life – the stage, and You – the Show.
Let it be to me, O Lord.It’s You I need to see, O Lord.
So take my dreams, my best laid plans,
And do to me just as You’ve said.
Let it be to me, O Lord.
Let it be to me.
(c) Jennifer Crawford Walker
12-11-12
With love and anticipation of ALL God has planned for each “undesirable” circumstance He has allowed…
E-book Keeping Christ AS Christmas: Preparing hearts, households, and homes for PEACE this Christmas season. Click here for more details, and “like”the Keeping Christ AS Christmas facebook page to share YOUR ideas on keeping Jesus as the Center of the Christmas season.
