A Beehive of Activity

The week is finally here! I just can't believe it...but it has arrived. And each day has been a beehive of activity. Lights were delivered and hung. The stage was struck and the orchestra pit was formed. The Serpent took form. The curtain was hung. The star was pullied. The dancers have practiced. The Tree of Life swayed in the breeze...oh and I think I saw 2 giraffes walking around the Worship Center tonight. See...a beehive of activity. Each day this week we've be working on one more element than the day before, layering them together like a scrumptious cake that will just be waiting on you when you arrive. But as busy as we were today, the moments to stop and be thankful for God's providence were there. I went into this day trying to remind myself to not be so busy as to miss God at work all around me. There was another woman over 2000 years ago who was mindful of how God must be working out the all important details on her behalf.

IMAGINE THIS with me for just a minute.... Mary was only 3 days away from the time appointed that she would give birth to the Christ-child. She had been on a long journey with her new husband. She was very pregnant and not with HIS child. There were tons of other people who were also having to travel to Bethlehem. All returning to the city of their ancestors birth. We don't really know what weather must have been like for them. We don't really know if people traveling that similar journey were helpful to them. We don't really know if their donkey was traveling at a decent pace or decided to stop and be stubborn from his weariness from carrying this young and very pregnant girl. So, IMAGINE all of the uncertainty, all of the activity... This is a favorite part of scripture for me. The Bible says that "Mary pondered or hid all of this in her heart." She held all of this journey, as crazy as it was, near and dear to her heart. God's child lived inside her body. Surely, the journey for her was a different than for others. Her point of view watching God deliver His plan of redemption to earth was the closest possible. Surely her soul was very sensitive to how God was working around her...after all He was IN her too.
So this week as we work hard to be prepared for your arrival at IMAGINE CHRISTMAS, From the Beginning, my prayer is that my soul and spirit is ever sensitive to all that God is doing to prepare the message. I hope you'll join me in praying for the souls who need to hear the message of REDEMPTION made flesh. Pray their hearts will be ripe and ready to just receive THE GREATEST CHRISTMAS GIFT EVER GIVEN. His name is Jesus. He is Emmanuel, God With Us.