Emmanuel #20
Ruth Chou Simons says, "Our Messiah is no Santa Claus. He doesn't simply promise to deliver gifts; He promises to be the gift we truly need."
My husband, our harpist daughter and her harp, and I met up in the pouring rain at our local retirement home to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Our talented church administrator designed posters with the verses in Luke of the Christmas story printed on them, so each resident could take part in the reading of the scriptures. It was a wonderful.
I asked these residents to share a memory of a Christmas past. The majority shared that they came from extremely poor farming families who had very little for Christmas, some receiving absolutely nothing, others remembered handmade gifts placed in shoe boxes sans wrapping paper. One woman, who had obviously had a stroke, shared that the people in this nursing home were now her family and she loved having them to spend Christmas with.
Visiting nursing homes is a definite heart tug. We definitely received the blessing by being with these wonderful people!
There were some chuckles too during the sharing time. One lady shared someone made fun of her country accent and she said, "Then dammed Yankee, go home!" She added, "That was very ugly of me."
On this particular day in Simon's Advent devotional Emmanuel, she spoke of God wanting us to be overcome with His mighty love. I thought of these residents who have had to overcome so much in their lives and now are at a very difficult stage...the end of their earthly journey. As I listened to them I thought of what Simons wrote...
"God shows His power by covering us with His love and delight. Of all the ways God can show His might and power, He chooses to sing over us, rejoice over us, quiet and comfort us...We settle for so much less than the mighty love of Jesus, the mighty faithfulness of Jesus, the mighty rescue of Jesus."
Jesus is our overcomer. The all sufficient One!
The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save, he will rejoice over you will gladness, he will quiet over you by his love, he will exult over you with loud singing. Zephaniah 3:17
The Song
“Make Room” Casting Crowns Matt Maher
