MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

I don't know if I am so shocked it is Christmas ALREADY or that 2008 is ending. Can you believe it??? Well....it is, whether you believe it or not. I hope that this new year find's blessings overtaking each of you.

For Dow and I and so many of our friends and family this has been a tough year. As I was thinking about that the other day, I started thinking about the shepherds in the field that night when the angel appeared to them. It says "they were keeping watch over their flock by night". You know, just doing the usual. What they had done day in and day out. Some of them were probably standing out in that field wondering how in the the world they were going to make it through their tough times and it says "then suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared" and it says that the angel was there to bring them "good news" that TODAY, this day a Savior is born, He is Christ the Lord. In other words, right there in their situation, however bleak it may seem salvation had come to them. Now I know some of you may be saying "where is the angel?" I hear you! I don't know what I would do if the angel appeared to me like that though. No wonder he told them "do not be afraid". But you know, better than an angel, God has given us His word. The very life spoken word of our Savior, we have, this day in the city of Mobile, or wherever you are. We have that word saying to us "Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy".

I want you to think about this with me. I thought, what were the shepherds thinking, wondering, etc. from the time they heard the word of salvation to the actual moment they saw salvation. I know an angel appeard and it is pretty hard to doubt that but being human that we are, and who knows how far they had to travel or wait and wait and wait, they must have thought.... What are we doing following a star? And are you really serious that "salvation" is going to come to me out of a stinking stable? But they remembered the word from the angel and kept going until they reached the manger and
there.... He was......salvation......
in a baby, in a manager. Not what they expected but nonetheless the Savior of the world. The Savior for their situation, their trouble, their stress, their life and on and on. The Savior for it all!

I pray for you and your family that you be encouraged to press on and stay with the word from the moment you hear it to the moment you see it, your salvation, your Savior. And remember to do as the shepherds did....
"The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told."