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I like to view myself as an independent person – a woman who can get tasks done without any help and without shedding much sweat over the situation. But, in the stillness of my quiet times with the Lord, He reminds me that I need Him. He is the breath-giver, heart-pumper, and all around holding-things-together-er.

Still I find myself voicing some of these declarations of independence:

“Nae, do!” AKA Stubbornness

According to my parents, this was my first motto. Whether it was feeding myself or wearing big girl panties, Read More

The weather forecasters boast that their VIPIR 7 Storm Centers, Doppler radars, and future casts are the most accurate in the area. And yet, twice in the past 30 days they have promised us snow in West TN and snow has yet to come.

Our initial reaction is to yell at our chief meteorologist on the tv screen and marvel at their inaccuracy.

How pitiful is that reaction? Grown people sitting on the couch mad that they don’t get a snow day even though the weather app on their phones promised 2-3 inches. (For those of you in the north like Montana, I’m sure you’ll excuse this southerner for her lack-of-snow complaints.)

I’ve been contemplating the weather the past two days and tried to figure out exactly why the weather forecasters are unable to be correct when a very simply, duh-like statement dawned on me. The weather people, like me, are not in control.

Imagine with me, for a moment, that even the most ancient of cultures employed weather forecasters. How do you think they would have responded to:

• The sun standing still for an entire day and night.
• A sudden pouring of rain from the sky that flooded the entire world.
• Fire falling from the sky and demolishing and entire town.
• Raging storms on the sea that suddenly stop.

Psalm 148 lists all of creation praising the Lord, including the lightning, hail, snow, clouds and powerful winds. Our God is in control of even the weather.

In a week when I am tired of the temperature fluctuating like a yo-yo, I am reminded that I serve the God who is in control. As the sun rose this morning, the Lord renewed his mercies to me once again (Lamentations 3:22).

Rather than complain about the cold, the lack of snow, or even the abundance of snow, I hope we can all respond just as the author of Lamentations did in the following verse: “The Lord is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in Him.”

As I spent the majority of the last two days with my 8 week old nephew in my lap, I couldn’t help but wonder how Mary felt caring for the Christ child. Radio, magazines, and sermons bombard me with images of Jesus in a manger at this time of year. But no matter how frequently I see a nativity, I cannot rid my mind of the cross. The stillness of our wooden nativity scene is overshadowed by the soon-coming death on the cross.

As much as I love the telling of the Christmas  narrative in Luke, I gravitate toward the passages entailing the arrest and sacrificial death some thirty years later.

I don’t find myself humming, “Happy Birthday, Jesus” on Christmas Day but rather “see from His head, His hands, His feet / sorrow and blood flow mingled down.”

Christ’s coming to earth sparks the celebrations at this time of year. But He’s more than a glowing baby lying next to donkeys. He is the God-Man – the ultimate sacrifice. He is the sacrificial lamb born to die for you and me. At this time of year, I remind myself of this not by reading the Christmas narrative but by reading the Passion week, those chapters in our Bible that tell the last moments of His life, not the first. Why? Because I need a reminder that Christ wasn’t born so that I could have candy canes in my stocking or even get my family together. Christ was born to die so that I could be right in my relationship with God.

So as the hustle and bustle of Christmas Day is behind us, take 3 minutes to listen to “I Celebrate The Day” by Relient K.

And I, I celebrate the day
that you were born to die
so I could one day pray for You to save my life.

I stepped into the garage with my brother to borrow a tool to fix my car. When we came inside, his Maltese dog was prancing at my feet wearing a shirt I had never seen before.

“Big Sister.”

Hugs and congratulations filled the room for the next several minutes as they told me I would soon be an aunt.

One of my favorite Pinterest pastimes is finding new posts for baby gender reveals. I am amazed at how clever become become with them. From holding up mustaches or red lips, dying cakes, releasing balloons, to the classic picture of the parents’ shoes next to tiny baby shoes, I marvel at the creativity and hard work that many couples put forth in their gender reveals and birth announcements these days.

What would our Pinterest board look like if we had all of eternity to plan our birth announcements rather than a few short weeks?

God, in His infinite wisdom and plan, knew exactly when and how the Messiah would enter this world. His birth announcement was more extravagant than anything we could ever plan for our own child.

Where do you think the birth announcement began? Perhaps in Luke 2 when the multitude of heavenly hosts with the angel praised God and said, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people He favors!”

Or maybe even the previous chapter when the angels Gabriel told Mary, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Now listen: You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will call His  name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”

God sent angels, heavenly hosts, even a special star. But was that really the birth announcement’s origin?

If we flipped to the first few pages of our Bibles, we can reread the magnificent power of God in the creation of the world. But then we hit the life-ending conflict of chapter three: the introduction of sin. Who would have guessed that the introduction of sin would also be the first birth “announcement” of our Messiah, the only one who can rescue us from that sin?

Genesis 3:15 announces, “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

God had a plan. He knew from the beginning of time that the Messiah would enter the world. He even sent prophets from Abraham to John the Baptist to announce the good news to you and me.

At this Christmas season, our sin is revealed quickly in ourselves – from the selfish thoughts of not receiving the gift you really wanted or getting irritated at the number of Salvation Army bell ringers or pieces of mail from nonprofits requesting money.

God sent His only Son, Jesus, into this world to free us from the slavery of sin and to free us to live a life for His glory.

Merry Christmas.

Originally published on December 14, 2012.

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