My nativity set has a new home this year. And I think it might have turned out to be the best place yet – for a reason I might never have thought of.

I usually put my nativity set on a shelf of a hutch in my dining room. It wouldn’t have worked there this year since I put up a faux brick wall and the hutch doesn’t have a back to it and I don’t think Mary and Joseph stayed in a stable with faux brick walls. It would have looked cool, but there would have been something a little questionable about the backdrop.

And then I’ve been having trouble getting into the Christmas spirit this year. Maybe it’s because retailers were jamming it down our throats for weeks before Thanksgiving. Or maybe it’s the Florida thing. Hard to get in the spirit of the season when it’s unseasonably warm outside.

But yesterday, I put on the Christmas music and I unpacked those boxes with the nativity set in a defiant act of “I WILL have Christmas joy!”. I love my nativity figurines – simple, plain carvings. Uncluttered. Deserving of a simple, uncluttered place to display them. Then I noticed the upright chest of drawers I have by my front door. Perfect. I moved a candle and a framed picture and there it was. The perfect place to let Mary and Joseph and the baby and the stable animals remind me of what Christmas is really all about.

And then it became much more than that.

Two feet above the chest is a clock. And the minute I set up those figurines, it hit me. That little scene in the stable happened at – just the right time. Looking at the manger scene with a big clock hanging over it where a star should be almost made my chin drop. It was like God was reminding me about a part of the Christmas story I know about, but hadn’t really pondered in a long while.

That moment – the couple and the shepherds and the stars and no room at the inn and the politics and the birth of a baby – all happened at just the right time. God’s time. Not earlier, not later. Just a stroke of some heavenly clock and it all unfolded.

I’m going to be sad when I have to pack away that nativity set after the holidays. But for now, and for every day until then, I’m going to let the manger scene and the simple carved pieces and the clock hanging overhead remind me that God always has a plan, and His timing is always just right.

My times are in Your hand; Psalm 31:15

To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven: Ecclesiastes 3:1

And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. Luke 2:6

Celebrating Advent means being able to wait. Waiting is an art that our impatient age has forgotten. It wants to break open the ripe fruit when it has hardly finished planting the shoot. But all too often the greedy eyes are only deceived; the fruit that seemed so precious is still green on the inside, and disrespectful hands ungratefully toss aside what has so disappointed them. Whoever does not know the austere blessedness of waiting – that is, of hopefully doing without – will never experience the full blessing of fulfillment.

from “God Is In The Manger – Reflections on Advent and Christmas”, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

That you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Hebrews 6:12

Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Revelation 14:12

But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. James 1:4

I realize that much of my country is experiencing a blast of icy Arctic air, and that we’re seeing pictures on the TV of houses covered in 6 feet of snow and “polar vortex” is becoming a part of our everyday vocabulary. But indulge me. I’m going to talk about something “cool”.

As difficult as it may be for some of you right now, think back to a time when you were hot. Uncomfortably, irritatingly hot. You wanted an escape. You needed an escape. And then you opened the door to an air conditioned room, poured yourself an icy drink and ahhhhhhh…..you were refreshed.

Ever thought of your time with God that way?

I hadn’t. Until we came across this verse in Bible study the other night:

“Repent therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord”. Acts 3:19

That word “refreshing”? Comes from a Greek word that means, “To breathe, to make cool, refreshing with cool air, to relieve when under distress”.

Time spent with the Lord is like a wave of cool air washing over you when you’re hot and tired and cranky and just need relief. It doesn’t need to be 90 degrees outside for us to feel tired and cranky and in need of relief. Life can do that to us without regard for actual temperatures and seasons. And we stay there longer than we need to sometimes. Silly us. We forget where the relief can be found.

Peter’s sermon here in Acts reminds us that we need to be right with the Lord. And when we are, any moment we spend in His presence refreshes us, revives us, relieves us.

Whatever your particular need is today, whether a cool glass of iced tea or a warm mug of hot chocolate, let it remind you to spend some time with God.

Refreshments are waiting.

He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. Psalm 23:2-3

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation. Psalm 51:12

Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in You? Psalm 85:6

Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me. Psalm 138:7

Sometimes life is hard. Not impossible. Not devastating or horrific. Just hard.

And when life is hard, I’m not tempted to walk away from God. I’ve never been tempted to write God off or shake my fist at Him in anger. My protest is a softer one.

I pretend the hard thing doesn’t matter.

I pretend that it doesn’t bother me. And sometimes I realize days – maybe even weeks or months – have gone by and I haven’t really prayed about the hard thing. I might have fleeting conversations with God about it, but I haven’t sat down with Him to really wrestle it out.

It’s one thing to surrender a hard thing to God, turning it over to Him, believing He’ll work it out for my good. But it’s another thing to avoid the proverbial elephant in the room, thinking that if I simply don’t acknowledge it, life will just go on. The days will pass and eventually the hard thing won’t even matter anymore.

I know better than that.

I know that God knows my heart and knows all about my life – including the hard parts. And I know (silly me) that God has a purpose and a plan to do me good in the end. He’s using the hard things to show me how He is sufficient, He is trustworthy, He is kind.

He never promised a soft life. Abraham had to wait. David was pursued by enemies. Job had everything taken from him. Paul had a thorn in the flesh. Sharon has a hard thing (not impossible, not devastating, not horrific, just hard).

The hard things in our lives DO matter. They matter to God. And so today, God and I will talk about mine. Even just writing that made me smile. I’m looking forward to not pretending today. And I think God is looking forward to that too.

My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness. 2 Corinthians 12:9

Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7

Cast your burden on the Lord and He will sustain you. He will never permit the righteous to be moved. Psalm 55:22

…that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do you good in the end… Deuteronomy 8:16

For this light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. 2 Corinthians 4:17

“It is well….”

I know. You’re thinking of that hymn. The one that talks about when sorrows like sea billows roll.

And I could write about that. Great hymn. One of my favorites. But I’m actually thinking today of the first time those words were ever documented. And it wasn’t by Horatio Spafford, and it wasn’t a song.

They were the words of an unnamed woman in the Bible from an area known as Shunem. And by all accounts, things were not, in fact, “well”.

As the story in 2 Kings 4 tells us, her child – her only child – got a bad headache. And soon after, he was dead. Gone. Not coming back.

Hopeless. Or so it should be. But that woman knew Elisha. And because of that, she knew his God. So she saddled a donkey and went to find him. When her husband asked her what was going on, she said, “It is well”, even though her lifeless child lay still in an upper room. She knew that in spite of the way things appeared, God could still be trusted.

And when Elisha asked if things were OK with her husband and child she told him the same thing. “It is well”.

She didn’t know for sure that God could raise her child from the dead. She didn’t know for sure how He was going to move in this situation. But she had faith that the battle wasn’t over. And in a dramatic turn of events which involved the child sneezing seven times (not kidding – read the story), God indeed brought him back to life.

“Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul”.

May I be just as quick to say that when things look not so well. Because with God, it is always well…with my soul.

God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear,
Even though the earth be removed,
And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Psalm 46:1-2

I would have lost heart, unless I had believed
That I would see the goodness of the LORD
In the land of the living. Psalm 27:13

Whenever I am afraid,
I will trust in You. Psalm 56:3

How strange your life must seem to you these days. But one has to climb a mountain, too, in zigzags, or one would never reach the top, and from there one can often see quite clearly why such a route was necessary.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from the book, “Love Letters from Cell 92″

But He knows the way that I take;
When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold. Job 23:10

You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16:11

“Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths.” Isaiah 2:3

So there I was, precariously perched on a step ladder, with a cordless drill in one hand and my other hand supporting the 9 foot vertical blind mechanism so it wouldn’t come crashing down on my head when the last screw was taken out. And I suddenly had a thought that made me smile.

I bet Dad would be proud of me.

My Dad never actually taught me how to take down ugly vertical blinds by myself, but he did teach me how to be resourceful, how to think things through, how to solve problems. I never saw him panic, I never saw him afraid to take on a challenge. He kept at something until he figured out how to make it work.

And it made me think about God. And about how I want Him to be proud of me, too. He might be proud of the way that I tackled the living room window situation, but it’s more than that. I want Him to be proud of the way I live my life.

God has taught me well. But I still must make the choice to put those lessons into practice. I want Him to look down on me and smile when I step out in faith, when I face a difficult and challenging situation with confidence. I want Him to be proud of me when I make the right choices, when instead of going into a panic about something, I seek Him out and stick with Him until things become clear.

The ugly vertical blinds are down. A new curtain rod is up. My living room window looks good. I think so, anyway. But I hope that when I look at the window and think about how proud Dad would be of me, I’m also reminded of my heavenly Father who cheers me on and watches to see how I’ll follow His lead.

What I want to hear Him say is, “That’s My girl”.

The LORD your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17

The LORD your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your land for good. For the LORD will again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers. Deuteronomy 30:9

The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear Him,
In those who hope in His mercy. Psalm 147:11

Life can change so suddenly. You go to bed one night and all is well with the world. By that same time the following day, everything has changed.

I’ve just found myself thinking about that lately. We don’t know what a day will hold. A friend of mine lost her job without warning this week. I watch the news in the morning, and by the evening things have happened in the world that nobody even had on their radar earlier in the day. I passed an auto accident on the way home from work on Friday and thought to myself that those people had no idea that was going to happen that afternoon. They just left their homes in the morning thinking it would be a “normal” day, and now their world is quite literally, shattered.

Things happen. Life changes in a moment. A phone call, a knock at the door, a news alert, squealing car brakes.

Can we ever really be ready?

Actually, I think in a way, we can be. Whether my life is mundane or chaotic or spinning so fast I don’t know which way is up, nothing will happen to me that hasn’t passed through my Father’s hands first. When the “sudden terror” comes, my first thought needs to be about God, not about me.

Do not be afraid of sudden terror, nor of trouble from the wicked when it comes; For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught. Proverbs 7:25-26

The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1

He will not be afraid of evil tidings; His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. His heart is established; He will not be afraid. Psalm 112:7-8

God seems to spend a lot of time letting us know that we really have nothing to fear as long as our confidence is in Him. I need to fill my mind with His promises now, on the blue-sky and sunshine days, so when the sudden storms come (which, of course, they will), I’m not hopeless or angry or dazed or lost.

The Lord knows what today will hold for me. He knows what it will hold for you. And knowing that means the “sudden” is nothing to fear.

Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10

Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. John 14:1

Lessons learned in the waiting … at Walgreens.

My annoying summer cold turned into something antibiotic-worthy last week, which landed me at Walgreens (a pharmacy chain in the US for those readers from elsewhere) to pick up a prescription. The nice pharmacy lady asked if I’d be waiting for it or coming back later. “I’ll wait”, I said. I was already miserable. Why prolong it?

A short while later I was home, praying that the pills would work miracles and I’d be able to breathe again without coughing up a lung. And that’s when I noticed the bag the medicine came in. Stamped across the top of it was one word.

“WAITING”.

Seems that if the pharmacy folks know you’re standing there instead of going back home, they might just count out your pills a little more quickly.

And I found myself looking at that bag and smiling, thinking how great it would be if our prayers could be dropped off at the customer service window in heaven, and as long as we said we were “waiting”, they’d be answered more quickly.

But of course, that’s not the way God works. He doesn’t need to us to tell Him how to prioritize answers. He doesn’t need us to remind Him that we’re waiting. He already knows.

And He knows that the waiting has a purpose in His plan. He doesn’t slip our requests to the bottom of the pile, or close up the store at 9:00pm. He doesn’t answer someone else’s prayers first because mine aren’t important enough.

It’s still OK if my requests have the word “WAITING” stamped on them. I think it’s Biblical to tell God we’re waiting. David did it all the time in the Psalms. We just need to remind ourselves that we’re not just waiting – we’re waiting on God. And He’ll answer in His perfect time.

And who knows? Maybe He’ll slip a little extra blessing into the bag as a reward.

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Hebrews 11:6

Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him; Psalm 37:7

The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. Lamentations 3:25

I waited patiently for the LORD; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry. Psalm 40:1

Life gets busy sometimes.

The more I thought about the word “busy”, the more intrigued I became with its actual definition. So I looked it up. “Not at leisure, otherwise engaged, full of or characterized by activity, attentively engaged in work or a pastime”.

Otherwise engaged. So true.

For me, it’s been a month since my vacation ended, the students we’ve been preparing for at school are coming back this week in full force, we’ve had transitions at work with interviews for new employees, I had a pretty hideous leak under my kitchen sink, a speaking engagement and now I’ve got some kind of summer cold. Otherwise engaged in a whole bunch of things.

And sometimes too busy to stop and think about trying to see God in all of it.

I came across this short little poem the other day. Short enough that maybe I should memorize it to remind myself to slow down. To not hurry through the “busy-ness”.

I will not hurry through this day!
Lord, I will listen by the way,
To humming bees and singing birds,
To speaking trees and friendly words:
And for the moments in between
See glimpses of Thy great Unseen.

I will not hurry through this day;
I will take time to think and pray;
I will look up into the sky,
Where fleecy clouds and swallows fly;
And somewhere in the day, maybe
I will catch whispers, Lord, from Thee!

Ralph Spaulding Cushman

I want to see God today, in whatever He places in my path, in the midst of commute, or work, or conversations. I want to remember to just slow down and sense His presence.

I will not hurry through this day!

Consider the lilies, how they grow; they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Luke 12:27.

For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Romans 1:20 (NLT)

Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. Kings 19:11-12