A Hollywood maternity shop received this note in the mail: "Dear Sirs, you have not yet delivered that maternity dress I ordered. Please cancel the order. My delivery was faster than yours."
In today's world of online shopping, we pay extra for faster deliveries. Now we have same day delivery or even one hour delivery. We want our orders fast and quick. The birth of Jesus was faster than Mary or Joseph expected. They did not pay for a faster delivery. But the delivery of the baby was faster than they expected. So was with all the characters in the story of Christmas. "While they were in Bethlehem, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
Luke says, that Mary went into labor and gave birth to her firstborn son, “while” she was in Bethlehem.
That’s a powerful “while.” Mary and Joseph are in Bethlehem for the census and to be taxed because Joseph belonged to the family of David; to fulfill another pesky government requirement. Think of it like you might think of paying your taxes or like going to the IRS office with your check. It’s not something you want to do; it’s something you have to do. That is not the time to think about Jesus coming. Joseph or Mary would not have expected the delivery of the baby at that time.
But the Bible says, the time was come for the savior to be born in this world. Where does the time come from? From where? from who? We all know that we did not create time. It was there when we came to this world. Time and eternity are in the hands of a creator who created everything including time. Only God has control over time. David says, "My times are in Your hands ..." (Psalm 31:15)
Paul says in the letter to Galatians (4:4), “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we all might receive the adoption as sons and daughters”. Christmas is not about us filling our time full but rather about taking time to remember how God fills the time in our lives and fills it to fullness and to overflowing. If our hectic schedules filled with shopping, parties, and other special events leave no time for God, the fullness of time will not be a reality.
Some deliveries in life can turn our lives upside down. Sometimes, we get deliveries, faster than we planned. We need to learn to accept and be happy with what we get, because God has planned it for a blessing. "When the time is right, I, the Lord, will make it happen." The smallest family will become a thousand people, and the tiniest group will become a mighty nation. I am the Lord." (Isaiah 60:22).
A family had some hard knocks of life this holiday season. They were all hit by the Covid-19. The mom and son recovered. The dad spent two weeks in ICU and came out to his room and spent a couple of days only to go back to ICU. His lung collapsed and they are trying to recover it. The family had been separated for Thanksgiving and Christmas. There was no baking or cooking in the house over a month. They are being helped by neighbors and friends. They did not ask for it. Some deliveries come unexpectedly and untimely.
God is the creator of our lives and He is the creator of time. He knows what is happening at each moment. Someone said, “life happens when we are doing other things.” Scripture tells us Jesus came by and disciples while they were fishing. “Immediately they left their nets and followed them.” (Matthew 4:20) When Matthew was at the customs duty collecting taxes, Jesus called him. He got up and followed him. (Matthew 9:9). And in the old testament, Elisha was called while working in the fields. (1 Kings 19). Moses and David were called while they were tending sheep. The scripture is replete with a truth that God will speaks and calls people times and places that were most inconvenient for them. Perhaps this is because what the Creator of Heaven and Earth wants is a little more important things get done than what they were doing at the moment.
God's convenience may become our inconvenience many times. Moses and David would probably been a rich man with sheep, camels, goats and cattle. They both became great leaders. Paul would have risen in the ranks of Judaism and died an important man. Paul went from being the persecutor to being the persecuted. Peter would have fished every day and died an old man with many grandchildren. Peter became the rock on which God builds His church. Elijah challenged a king and anointed another King . God simply calls people out of their inconvenience to His convenience because He is God and we are not.
Because the truth is that if Jesus only showed up when I thought I was ready for Him to show up, He would never be able to make it. He would not get a chance to show up because my life is always busy and overcrowded with the details. Thank God Jesus doesn’t wait until I’m ready because we have crammed our stockings with odds and ends, with trinkets and trimmings, with ornaments and lights , shopping for gifts that nobody can find, and searching for those items that would somehow charge and animate our lives. Thank Jesus because He does not wait for you to get settled.
Some of us are stepping into new phases of life and have more questions than answers and have no clue what is coming next, but Jesus will come where you are. Others weep every Christmas because there was a loss, a death, a reversal or brokenness. Jesus comes where you are. Maybe you have spent some time — maybe a long time — desperately looking for peace but the hope has faded, the trail has gone cold and you’re getting close to giving up. But Jesus is here, where you are. Jesus told Zacchaeus, "this very day, I am coming to your house." He did not have to clean up and set things straight. Because Jesus knew him before he went up the tree.
Some have tried to make the Christian life more convenient. They choose to practice Christianity on Sunday only. They give a small offering and are nice to fellow churchgoers—nothing that requires much effort on their part. That way they can have the rest of the week to themselves, to live as they please. That would be a convenient Christianity. Perhaps when you were younger your church and pastor showed you the baby Jesus wrapped in clothes. You could fit him in your personal agendas or cultural comfort by picking and choosing something that were convenient and comfortable. But as you grew older, life became more realistic. You are learning to understand that God does not fit in your agenda or time schedule. Rather we learn to fit our time into His hands and His schedule.
God’s delivery comes when we are doing other things. It would be difficult to imagine Christmas without lights, good food; without new clothes, new shoes, new toys for the children, without parties; without merrymaking. So great is the emphasis upon merriment and the buying of gifts that we also learn the new messages that Christmas brings.
I called to wish an older family friend of ours to say Merry Christmas. When I called him and said, Merry Christmas, he corrected me, "'merry' is not a word for me this Christmas, let's say a “blessed Christmas.” He and his wife are in their late eighties. She is now in rehab after a fall at home and will have to spend another three weeks. The husband who just turned ninety and celebrated their 68th wedding anniversary told me that the family cannot see her. The children and grandchildren and planning to take him to the rehab center to see her. Since she is on the fourth floor, they will take her wheel chair to glass window on the fourth floor facing the parking lot. They can say hi to her down from the parking lot. It is mind boggling. So they are planning to write a big banner saying “We love you” and wave to her from the parking lot. Times have changed where we are asked to learn to be happy with what we get. A Sunday School teacher asked her class “What is Christmas - a time for?” She got the usual answers—Jesus’ birthday, a time of joy, a time to worship God… but then one child raised their hand and answered: "be happy with what you get, because you don’t always get everything you want."
We all have learned in 2020 that we can never say, 'it cannot get any worse' because it can. But God is in the middle of all this and working for the best. We are to learn to be be at peace with our situations. Mary is in Bethlehem with a baby a manger and hosting strange visitors like the shepherds. Having to lay her baby in hay there were the Angels' singing. We may have to change our plans to accommodate what life brings trusting in a God who sends his angels to sing Hallelujah.
Thank heavens for an inconvenient God! When things get too inconvenient, we can hear the angels sing, if we pay attention. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace and goodwill”
Comments
Post a Comment