Okay I confess I love Christmas so much that I have been busy decorating our home, preparing for a family visit still a month away and have already been listening to Christmas music! So if you are ready here is an early offering to my readers of a lovely song I have been so blessed by from Keith and Kristyn Getty titled ; “In the Bleak Midwinter” This is such a lovely gentle song. My prayer for you today is that in this pandemic of panic that tries to grip our hearts and tear away at all that is good and pure that you will find as you listen with me a center of peace found only as we worship our king who gently came to the manger on a bleak midwinter day!
Month: November 2020
Getting Ready for a Crazy Christmas!
Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 2 Timothy 4:2 ESV
Often about Thanksgiving I put out a post giving advice on how to prepare a Christmas program for nursing homes. But this year the plans of mice and men have definitely gone astray in more ways than anyone could have imagined. Due to Covid-19 our world is in many ways completely out of season. Nothing works as it once did if it works at all. Whether you live here in Florida where getting into a nursing home is akin to infiltrating North Korea or in California where meeting even with family members for Thanksgiving is under siege we have a problem Houston!
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But from the many years of experience the Apostle Paul had to draw on he gives both Timothy and us a word of timely advice – “Always be ready for change” Now truthfully I really hate change especially when it comes to things like Christmas. I love the gentle drifting of snowflakes out the window (though I guess I’ve already lost that by moving South!)For me nothing says Christmas like the sound of Pat Boone singing “O Holy Night or the aroma of my wife making her annual Christmas candy. But change is on the calendar for all of us. In small part by making a general nuisance of myself on the phone to various activities directors I have learned a few things that may be of help to you if you are thinking of doing some Nursing Home outreach this year.
First, ask if there is some kind of safe setting in which you or a small group of people can do something of a Christmas program including caroling, cards or small gifts. Our small group took an offering and purchased 36 of the Large Print Advent Readers which I wrote to give out. Second be flexible with your schedules. In the past we have done Christmas caroling and or a Pageant in the early evening but as we will be outside in the parking lot this year we got in the schedule for 3 PM. Last of all as always, prepare, prepare, prepare! It will be worth it when you come to those precious 30 – 40 minutes in which to share the love of Jesus and some holiday cheer for folks who have been under virtual house arrest since March.
Be encouraged! God is still in control. We have been able to schedule meeting for two different homes and to give our books at a third. If you have any questions on anything please feel free to contact me by email @ revpete5@gmail.com or ask them here on this post. The last eight months have been a learning experience for us all. One thing that never changes no matter the circumstances is the mission to go into all the world and tell people the good news of Jesus Christ. What better time than Christmas to get on board?
He Knows Where You Are!
Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me. Isaiah 49:16
Have you sometimes felt that God has forgotten where you are or doesn’t understand what you are going through? You are not alone! Lots of people in the Bible felt like that. For example, just what was Adam thinking when he tried to hide from God in the garden? Did he think maybe God didn’t know every nook and cranny of His own creation? Abraham was regularly reminding God not only where he was but of the promise that he would have a son. When Gideon was visited by an angel he had questions as well
,” And Gideon said to him, ‘Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? ‘ ” Judges 6:13
Does that question sound familiar in your own life. Does it seem you would like to say with Martha,
“If you had been here my brother would not have died!” John 11:21
But God has not forgotten us! He knows exactly where we are, what is happening and how we feel. If you are going through deep waters today as you read these words, don’t give up or become bitter. God’s promise to us is that he has engraved us on the palms of His hands. Then if we pause to think we will remember that that engraving was with the nails of the cross.
As they pierced through the soft flesh of the hands of Jesus and His blood spilled over the rough wood. Your name and mine were carved on His palms. He suffered in agony that afternoon till He cried out “My God My God, Why have you forsaken me?” In that moment on Mount Calvary Jesus felt alone and forgotten so that we would never be!
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