Making Plans

Let's begin this Advent season by looking back, not just to the baby in a manger.  Let's go back to where the story of the nativity begins; before the creation of the world.   For most of us, I included, it's easy to wrap our mind around a baby in a manger. We naturally want to start the Christmas story at the manger, or somewhere close to that time.  However, to be honest, to understand and appreciate the nativity we need to see where the story truly starts.  God had planned the birth of Jesus as he was creating the world.  There was nothing haphazard about the birth of Jesus.  God had mapped out everything to the minutest detail.  When we look at the baby in the manger, we should think about the fact that Jesus had been planning and working out the birth of Jesus for 2000 years. You planners can appreciate this kind of planning.    Imagine all the thought and detail what went in delivering that first Christmas present.  I am not a planner; I am way more likely to to something spur of the moment.  For God, this first Christmas present had to be perfect, and that required planning; intervening in the affairs of man.  The God of the universe is at work in the events of human history to place Mary, Joseph, and Jesus in a manger in Bethlehem at just the right time in history.  It is awe-inspiring and comforting because I was in his plan also, and so are you.  No, his plan is not for you and me to save the world, his plan is for you and me, to trust our lives to a baby in a manger.  His plans for you are just as carefully laid out.  God knows all about where you are right now, and he never has to move to plan B.  For God, there has only ever been one plan;  A baby in a manger who would die the death that we deserved.


"I Celebrate The Day"

And with this Christmas wish is missed
The point I could convey
If only I could find the words to say to let You know how much You've touched my life
Because here is where You're finding me, in the exact same place as New Year's eve
And from a lack of my persistency
We're less than half as close as I want to be

And the first time
That You opened Your eyes did You realize that You would be my Savior
And the first breath that left Your lips
Did You know that it would change this world forever

And so this Christmas I'll compare the things I felt in prior years
To what this midnight made so clear
That You have come to meet me here

To look back and think that
This baby would one day save me
In the hope that what You did
That you were born so I might live
To look back and think that
This baby would one day save me

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 Celebrate The Day