December 24th

Rarely does anything go as planned. That doesn’t mean planning is a waste. It is simply a reminder that, well, rarely does anything work out the way we plan it in our minds.

We have all experienced it. 

You reserve the room and plan the trip. Then you get sick. You buy the jersey. Then the player gets traded. You start looking at rings. Then you break up. 

Life needs plans. But life rarely follows the plans.

The first Christmas is a perfect example. 

After Joseph and Mary came to grips with the curve ball life had thrown them, and after they emotionally and spiritually recovered from the news that they would bear the burden of raising Jesus, nine months into the pregnancy…surprise! Everyone was ordered to return to their family’s homeplace. 

There would be no exceptions. It was an order from the Caesar. Time to pack and go.

Life was already difficult. Life was already uncertain. And just when life slowed down, the newlyweds, Joseph and Mary, had to hurry and get to Bethlehem. Along the way, they had to hope and pray they arrived before the baby did.

The first Christmas was full of chaos. But out of the chaos, God would send the Christ. And although it was not what Joseph and Mary planned, everything worked out just as God had said it would.

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register. 4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. Luke 2:1-5

 
Right now, take a moment to be honest with God. Tell Him all the things that have rattled you and disappointed you. Then, in spite of it all, reaffirm your commitment to trust Him even when things don’t go as planned. Ask Him to help you choose joy in the journey.

And this Christmas, if you are missing some of the people you had hoped to have with you, or there are fewer gifts than you had hoped around the tree, or things are just not going according to plans, trust Christ in the chaos. Your Christmas may be a lot more like the original than you could imagine.