In This World We Will Have Trials
Although my January snowmen decorations are screaming to be let out of their boxes, I'm not quite ready to pack up Christmas. I want a few days to sit with my man beside the tree ,with the fire burning, listening to Christmas music, looking at the lights with my Bible open on my lap.
We do not get to plan all our days though, God handles that and often the plan includes trails that include interruptions and even trials.
James starts off in chapter 1:2-4 CEV telling us...My friends, be glad, even if you have a lot of trouble. You know you learn to endure by having your faith tested. But you must learn to endure everything, so you will be completely mature and not lacking in anything.
I'm back to thinking about Mary. Her faith had to mature at a rapid rate! She had this unexpected, miracle pregnancy and birthed the baby Jesus in a stable. Then before he was two years old there is another angel encounter. Billy Graham wrote...
"Yet no sooner did He enter our world than Herod decreed His death and labored to accomplish it. Warned by God in a dream, Joseph fled Bethlehem at night, taking Mary and the baby Jesus to Egypt until Herod’s death finally made it safe to return."
Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” Matthew 2:13
Now I've fled by car and plane to some hospitals and our children's homes concerned for their health or the health of their children, but I've never walked for 12 hours to reach the border of a country 40 miles away knowing a king wanted to murder my child.
We know Mary's heart tugged during Passover, when Jesus was 12, and she couldn't find him. Pure panic. (Luke 2:41-52) And I am telling you my mama tiger claws would have come out again and again the way the Pharisees slung their verbal mud at Jesus, but no trial can compare to a mother enduring the TRIAL and consequences Mary did in those last days of Jesus' earthly life.
Don't stop singing the songs that tell the story and remind us of the hope we have in this world that will lead us out of this world! As Steven Curtis Chapman wrote, "This is the Great Adventure" and adventures contain adversity.
But all the trials piled up vanish in the resurrection power of Jesus. He is our Victor for ever more.
The Songs
“Manger Throne” Phil Wickham
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPiFsJDgIq8
“Christmas Day” Chris Tomlin, We the Kingdom
