I received an alert recently that tonight, in the spirit of the Christmas star, God had a surprise up his sleeve.
The Christmas full moon, here is a picture of the moon.
A beautiful image. NASA is currently making plans to once again return to the moon. While most of us will never set foot on the moon, this Christmas is one the best looks we will ever get of it. In the sky is the highest, brightest full moon that will be visible until the year 2023.
What is more, the planet of Mars, you know earth’ next door neighbor, the little red planet, here it is on the screen, is in perfect opposition from the sun with the earth right in the middle. And because of the orbits of both Mars and Earth, Mars will be closer to earth tonight than it will be in the next nine years. It is only a mere 55 million miles away. Just a hop, skip, and a jump away. I was reading that even amateur astronomers may be able to see some of the geographical features of the red planet with a good telescope.
It’s God’s little surprise and I don’t think it is any coincidence that he set these astronomical occurrences to take place on this night of all nights. It brings to memory another sight he put in the sky that first Christmas. I recently wrote in my blog online about this ‘if we don’t cry out this Christmas, at least the heaven will.’
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Psalm 19:1
It all got me thinking what it must have been like to have seen that first Christmas star when it appeared in the sky. When we visualize the Christmas star, many of us likely visualize an image that looks something like this:
We visualize this star shining almost as brightly as the sun, radiating directly down upon the tiny stable in Bethlehem, illuminating the holy family and the baby Jesus. But was this reality?
There are lots of different theories about what the Christmas star was – a comet, a convergence of planets, or maybe a nebula (the formation of a star). Yet, another possibility is that God just put it in the sky. It was just simply the light of God shining down on the earth.
The Christmas star certainly drew the attention of the wise men, also known as Magi, who were astronomers. But while it drew the attention of these ancient scientists, and likely made them all giddy, it likely went unnoticed to the general public. Just like today, a lot of things that make astronomers excited, really don’t get the general public all that enthused.
The Christmas star is probably was a little disappointing compared to the grand vision of the star that we carry with us. But that reality was that there was a lot that was disappointing things about that first Christmas. If we were to really see it for what it was, it really failed to live up to the expectations of so many.
Such an important figure to be born in such an unheralded way! The fulfillment of more than 1500 years of prophecy. The long expected Christ. The long expected Messiah. He wasn’t born in a palace. There were no trumpets sounded to announce his birth. He was born and life just kind of went on. No one really took notice, except for a few shepherds.
I would imagine that the first Christmas is not the only thing that is disappointing in the world. For many of you, the holiday, is a bitter disappointment. Maybe you don’t find that present under the tree you hoped to find. The perfect family gathering you spent weeks preparing for was a disaster.
It seems to me that every year that all the hype leading up to Christmas remains so unfulfilled. I chuckle when the radio station that has been playing Christmas songs since the end of October suddenly goes back to their regular music before Christmas day is even over. All the hype, leading up to such an anti-climatic ending. All this in spite of the fact that the 12 days of Christmas is now just beginning and will conclude in the beginning of January.
Maybe you have experienced a more significant disappointment. Maybe this is the first Christmas that you will experience apart from a loved one. Maybe as this year draws to a close, you realize that what you hoped 2007 would have been, did not come to be. Or maybe there is a relationship that you had high hopes for, just crumbled and fell apart.
Life is filled with disappointment. And there are certainly times when life does not meet our expectations. Times where we say, “Is that it?”
It’s only a little baby in a manger, in a stable. Is that it? Couldn’t God have done better? We expect the extraordinary from God! Not the ordinary!
So why doesn’t God meet our expectations?
First, he doesn’t meet our expectations because we are not Him.
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.
"As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9
In our humanness we do not even begin to grasp the mind of God. He is just on an entirely different plane and level.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. 1 Corinthians 1:25
There is really no comparison of our minds to the mind of God, even our grandest thought or ideas we can’t even begin to compare with God, we are not even on the same scale.
Another reason God does not always work in the way that we expect is because it gives us an opportunity to put our faith in him.
Anyone thirsty? If you need a drink, you might go to the vending machine. Pop your quarters into the coin slot. Make your selection and out pops your drink.
But that is the way that I think a lot of people view God. We perceive him operating much in the same way a vending machine operates. We put our change in, we make our choice, and then out pops what we have chosen. Sometimes the wrong item comes out of the machine and we get upset, and we blame the machine that it is broken.
In much the same way, we send our prayers and requests up to heaven. When God hears our prayers he answers our prayers according to our request. But when God’s answer doesn’t match our request, we feel frustrated and upset at God for not meeting our expectations.
I can almost here God saying when he doesn’t match our expectations, trust me, trust me. You may not understand right now at this given moment. None of this may make sense. But trust, down the road, looking back everything will be so clear.
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God ; trust also in me. John 14:1
A few weeks back when we had our first big snow, I wanted to take my 2 year old daughter Abby sledding for the first time. She was all excited and we got our snow suits on.
But when we got to the hill we started to climb to the top, but I could tell that Abby was starting to get scared. Now I didn’t say it in those exact words, “Trust me.” But that was essentially what I was saying. I assured her that everything would be ok, that her daddy would be there to protect her, and that it would be a lot of fun.
She went reluctantly, but she went. When we got to the top of the hill she didn’t want to sit down on my lap on the sled. No daddy, no daddy, I don’t want to. But I grabbed her anyways and pushed off down the hill we went.
Yeah, wee. We got to the bottom. Daddy, that was fun, can we do it again. I could have said, you see, just trust me!
I imagine God does that a lot with us. Just trust me. It my be scary, it might be difficult, I might not be doing this the way you want to do it, but just know that my way is higher than your ways, and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.
I think of Mary and Joseph. Certainly things did not work out the way that they planned. It all started when she was found to be with a child that was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Then there was the census that took Mary and Joseph from their hometown to Bethlehem and even later down into Egypt, before retuning to Nazareth.
But God had a plan that no one could fathom on that first Christmas night. God had plans for this baby that would change the world forever.
Years later, Jesus would die upon a cross. For those who followed Jesus it was something that they had not expected or anticipated. Certainly they were disappointed with what had happened.
After Jesus had died one the disciples on the road to Emmaus was quoted as saying: "He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.” Luke 24:19-21
You see their plan was not God’s plan. But the bitter disappointment of Good Friday, made possible the great surprise of Easter Sunday.
In 2008, I have got a prayer. My prayer is that God will bitterly disappoint me. I pray that he will replace my plans with his plans. My ways for his ways. I pray that he will take me out of the driver seat and that he will assume the proper place.
I pray for faith to trust, that no matter what may or may not happen, that I will know that God has a plan to bring blessing into my life and your life.
No comments:
Post a Comment