If God Was Smiling Yesterday...

Hopefully He will be chuckling today.

Todays reading is 

Matthew 2:1&2

It's about the wise men following the star.

I've read enough commentaries to know

that they did not actually show up at the stable.

Jesus was probably about two years old by

the time they got there.

Which reminds me of a joke...

What if it had been three wise women?

Well,

they would have asked directions,

they would have arrived on time,

they would have helped deliver the baby,

they would have cleaned the stable

and

they would have brought casseroles.

God loves me.

He has to.

God is Smiling!

See that baby in the manger?  I know it's hard to see from the picture, but believe me, He's smiling!  And that guy standing in the back - well, that's Joseph!  I bet he still can't believe all that has happened.  He was just a simple man thrust on the stage of universal proportions!  He had a broken heart (his fiance was pregnant, and it wasn't his!), and a dream (that included angels), and then a wife and now a baby!  But the baby is just on loan to him - or maybe he is just on loan to the baby.  Someone had to teach Jesus to shave, right?  Or maybe not, adult Jesus always has a beard. Hmmmm

At any rate, I love the heart of Joseph.  So much responsibility and no publicity, just kind of an honorable mention for an honorable man.  But I'm thinking that angelic dream must have seemed part nightmare.  Think about it:  you've decided to leave a woman who is obviously cheating on you.  You go to bed resolved to end the relationship and then an angel appears in your dream.  Seems like whenever angels appear, they seem to say, "Fear Not!"  So they must be something to be afraid of.  And when Joseph woke up, he got married.  But he waited most for a year for the honeymoon.  People are whispering behind his back about what he and Mary did before they got married.  

How ironic.

What to know what else is ironic?  Merry gave me such a big build up yesterday in this blog.  And today is my first ever blog.  And all I can come up with is wonder about Joseph's sudden change of heart and self imposed celibacy. 

Yep, God is smiling.  

Sometimes He smiles with me and often times on me.  Today He is smiling at me.  

It's ok.  I deserve it!

Matthew 1:22,23

Just to get us up to speed.

The following is a series of e-mails between Lory and me that started

from our first two days readings:

Lory:

It strikes me what an honorable man Joseph was.  He didn’t know what we do about what comes next.  But he still wanted to protect Mary’s honor.

What an amazing man God chose to be the earthly father of His son!

Merry:

and the poor guy gets so little time or background in the bible. Whatever happened to him?

Lory:

It will be fun to get his perspective in heaven!  I bet he thinks he did no big thing.  And he doesn’t even know yet that his rough, calloused carpenter hands get to deliver his wife’s baby – a wife he has never been with!  I love that guy!

Lory:

It seems like the three versions have a slightly different view of timing.  NIV seems to say that Joseph had already made up his mind before the angel stepped in.  KJV seems to say Joseph was still thinking when the angel arrived.  And the Message if you go back to v 19, seems to say he made up his mind but was still scheming on the how of it all.

Maybe it doesn’t matter, and how will we ever know.  I’m still impressed with Joseph.  He was a really good man!

Now maybe you can understand why I love 

discussing Bible stuff with Lory. 

I love her perspective on things. 

Mine are not quite so high(?)

I just wonder why the poor guy didn't get more press! 

LOL

 Todays reading takes us to the foretelling of Christ's arrival

from Isaiah.

The King James version is so beautiful.

I like to read a Parallel Bible when I'm studying. 

It has three pretty standard translations and 

then The Message all lined up across from 

one another.

The Message is really helpful when I am struggling to 

understand a passage but for this story

nothing can beat the old King James.

Can you just hear Linus,

"For unto you in the city of David is born..."

Oops, I'm ahead of myself that comes

in Luke.

We don't get there till December 19th.

The reference here goes to 

Isaiah 7:14.

King James says they will call him 

Emmanuel.

Jesus is a good name but

Emmanuel just

stirs something in me. 

Emmanuel. 

God with us. 

God with me. 

Same Thing, Different Perspective

Sometimes it's good to see things through

new eyes.

When decorating for the holidays 

do you find everything has it's place?

The tree has it's designated corner.

The stockings go here,

and the Santa tree ALWAYS goes here.

Well, I shook things up a bit this year. 

The tree is still in it's corner.

The stockings however are lining the back of the couch.

And shocking!
The Santa tree did NOT go up this year.

But you want to know the biggest surprise for me?

While I chose a different location for the

creche, shocking!, 

I had Shanna arrange the pieces.

And while it is still in the dining room,
I did change the piece of furniture it sits on.
But what is truly amazing is
Shanna's positioning of the pieces.
Joseph and Mary are in the manger.
Jesus is tucked away safely in a drawer till
 Christmas day.
But the young shepherd who should be
crouched down waiting
in front of the manger to worship
The Christ Child?
And the cow who should be lazying in the manger?

Check it out!
The cow is out in the field and the shepherd
is petting it!

Makes perfect sense!
Who knew!!??

We're Putting Christ Front And Center In Our Christmas

I have a friend. 

Her Name is Lory.

We do lots of things together. 

I'm usually the instigator of the things that 

can potentially get us into trouble.

I taught her to drink margaritas on the train.

Lory instigates the kinds of things like

what we will be endeavoring to do here

for the month of December.

It started with an innocent enough comment from Lory, 

"I'm going to enjoy a Christ mass celebration this December."

What does that look like anymore?

Lory challenged me to really think about that. 

I tend to listen to Lory and then even 

think about what she says to me.

She's one of the few people that do that to me.

I decided that I would like to read 2 verses

a day from 3 different bible translations 

of the Christmas story from 

Matthew and Luke. 

Mike even made an Excel chart for me.

It works out perfectly to get you to December 24th. 

God does stuff like that. 

Whereas Lory challenged 

(perhaps unintentionally) 

me to get a concrete idea of how to put 

Christ back in my Christmas, 

I have challenged Lory to use her amazing

gift of the written word.

Lory and I will be doing the readings I've outlined

for the month together, she liked my idea :o).

We are going to take turns here 

writing about the verses we've read for that day. 

Wherever they may take us. 

It will be a fun challenge for us. 

You can come along for the ride if you like. 

I will try to load the Excel chart with the readings

onto the blog.

If you do come along, 

do us a favor and comment once in a while.

It's not as intimidating as it looks. 

You don't have to sign up, you can 

comment as anonymous. 

Or, if you get here via Facebook

you can comment on the link there. 

Let's see where we go!

Pretty sure we won't wind up in jail for this one......

Haven't Written Much Lately

I've been busy doing other things.

PS, that's about five minutes worth of photos.

Yes, very busy.

You See There Was This Play Date....

It was seven grown women 

verses 

seven children under the age of three.

Not sure how Lory and I get

ourselves into these things

but,

I wouldn't have missed it for the world.