Thought for the Week-Back to Work

Good Morning Girlfriends!

Happy New Year! I trust that everyone is rested and ready for the new year!  I hope and pray that each of you had a very warm and special Christmas.  We had a wonderfully relaxing Christmas.  We stayed home for the entire Christmas break for the first time in several years!  It was terrific!  New Year's was nice, and I thought things were rolling along just swimmingly, until...yesterday.  You see, the kids have been home for about two and half weeks.  Oh sure, they've had playdates.  Kids have been at my house.  My kids have been farmed out to other people's houses.  But still, the days of Christmas vacation were wearing on them.  They were becoming more restless.  Think of the animals at the zoo.  They began to pace.  In fact, they began to run...and to jump...to jump off of stairs.  Yesterday Elliott ran, and jumped off of the steps in our upstairs playroom and broke his leg.  Now, don't panic.  This is not a big deal, at least not as big of a deal as it was last year when he broke his arm.  After we dried the tears, found some ice and took some x-rays, we soon found out that are dealing with a break that will heal in about three weeks as opposed to the ten weeks from last May (through July). 

Now, I told you that story, to tell you this one: It's time to go back to work...or school, whichever boat you happen to be in.  We've had some time off, but now is the time to get back into the groove and put our noses to the grindstone, pick your cliche.  I've been holding onto this account for quite some time, just waiting for the right time to turn it lose.  Do you know how utterly amazing God's Word really is?  Can you even fathom?  I've read certain accounts so many times, I can literally see the words and the verse notation in my mind's eye.  Luke 2:1-20 is one of them.  Luke 2 is a very detailed account of the birth of Jesus.  My children recite all twenty verses for their school Christmas program every December, so about mid-October Luke 2 makes its first appearance in our home.  I hear it.  I study it.  It's written on my heart, and yet there is still something new each time I read it.  Today I pray you see it in a new light. 

God does things big.  He does.  It's who He is.  When His Son was born, He sent a multitude of angels down to announce it.  He set an enormous star in the sky over Bethlehem to guide the Wise Men from afar.  In all of His big-ness and His overwhelming greatness, He also shows great attention to detail.  Read with me, "And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.  An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.  This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." Luke 2:8-12  And then, with that one angel, there appeared a whole host of angels!  Don't you know that was a sight to behold!  How's that for a birth announcement?  Immediately the shepherds got up and went into town to see what was going on.  They found the Baby exactly as the angels said.  What does all of this have to do with going back to work?  I'm getting to that. 

Having a visit from a multitude of heavenly hosts would be something that you wouldn't easily forget.  At least, I wouldn't be able to.  Then they get up and truck it on into town and see the Baby that was told to them.  My mind would've exploded and my eyes would've popped right out of my head.  But not these shepherds.  Girls, they were there.  They went to the manger.  They knelt before the King of Kings.  They worshipped Him in His purest form.  Then...."The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told." Luke 2:20 (emphasis added)  The shepherds went back to work.  They witnessed this miracle, the key to salvation, and yet, they returned--they went back to work. 

So, what about you?  What have you witnessed?  Are you back at work?  Are you praising God?  Are you thinking right now: But, I'm nobody special...who am I to give a witness to anything?  Let me stop you right there for a moment, did I mention that shepherds in Biblical times weren't really considered the most reliable witnesses or sources of information...yet, here we are more than 2000 years later reading about their testimony to birth of our Savior.  I want to offer you some encouragement today: God does BIG things with small starts.  God wrapped His awesome and unimaginable glory and power in the tiny, soft and vulnerable package of a newborn Baby.  That Baby was the BIGGEST thing to ever hit mankind.  Don't second-guess God's plan for you.  It was no accident that God spoke first to the shepherds...unreliable...outcasts of society...but it worked.  They went away praising God.  I challenge you to go back to work today.  Praise Him.  Be His witness.  Have a blessed week!

Please pray for me this week: The Mommy Diaries goes to print this week!!  My new Publicist starts my campaign this week--pray she is able to make some really good and strong connections for The Mommy Diaries.
If I can pray for you, please let me know!

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