Matt. 3: 17

And lo a voice from heaven, saying,

This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

How am I at being well pleased? Am I well pleased with the Lord? Am I happy with what He has given me?

How am I at making the Lord well pleased? “But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” (Heb. 13: 16)

Shepherding then might have the modern equivalent of flipping burgers at some “Open Late” drive-through. Nothing glamorous. Not the kind of environment where you expect to see angels. Or the kind of work that you expect the Lord to analogize to His own work, but all the more instructive that He did.

Maybe Joseph was spiritually guided to only ask at inns that were completely full. Sometimes, the Lord seems to be frustrating our cause; He is really furthering it. His cause is our cause, stripped of all of its pretensions, extraneous components, and selfishness.

Amos 3: 7

Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

As far as Heavenly Father’s relationship with the prophets goes, it’s not the kind of thing where one is keeping secrets from the other: they tell each other everything.

When a Master acts, the servants know what’s going on because they are with the Master, hear what He’s saying, and do little things to help out and to carry His message. In the same way, the prophets are God’s servants, and they are “in on” what is going on.

If you listen to what the prophets are saying, you will hear what the Lord is doing. That’s how it goes.

Things were probably not  nearly so ideal as they are portrayed: Mary may not have had clean clothes, much less have her hair combed, the stable might have needed mucking out, Jesus may have cried half the night through, the swaddling clothes may not have been particularly clean or matched colors, and Mary must have been exhausted and shocked from the agony of her first delivery.  These are the things that miracles are made of.  Don't wait until everything is perfect: watch the Lord work with everything that is imperfect, unjust, or just plain miserable and see the magnificence that He brings out of it.

At Home in the Slums

Often I have focused on how Christ was out of place in the manger: that He deserved to be welcomed as a King, rather than ignored as a peasant. But Christ was at home with the outcasts: He came to be with them. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised”(Luke 4: 18). Had there been a “Triumphal Entry”, Christ would not have been accomplishing His purpose. He was not here to be celebrated, He was here to serve.

Isa. 55: 9

As the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways,

and my thoughts than your thoughts. 

Heavenly Father wants you to close that gap: to think higher thoughts, to act in higher ways. To Him, a person is never higher than when they stoop to pick up one another: convicts, the homeless, immigrants, the sick (Matt. 25: 35-36). Condescension is a characteristic of godliness (1 Ne. 11: 26-29). Want to lift the dregs of society. Try. Make them a part of your life. Bring forth from the abundance of your heart that which is good (Luke 6: 45).

And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. (1 Kgs. 19: 12)

Sometimes I think that if I have the Spirit with me then I’ll be like a fire or an earthquake: something extraordinary for all the world to see. It doesn’t sound very glamorous to be a still small voice. Where is the excitement there?

The Lord has given me a body to act for, as well as speak for God. But even so, most of God’s work is not “newsworthy”. People change, lives are healed, hearts are mended. Help me be a part of that change, and help me be satisfied with the lack of limelight.

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.(Gen. 2: 24)

May I leave my parents for “the gospel’s [sake]” and “receive … in the world to come eternal life.”(Mark 10: 29-30) May my departure honor them in every way (Ex. 20: 12), that we may both be blessed.

May I cleave to my wife as the Lord has cleaved to me (Jacob 6: 5) and as I wnat to cleave to Him: to love and obey (Deut. 30: 20), to walk after, to serve “with all [my] soul”(Josh. 22: 5), and to “come [to] with full purpose of heart”(Jacob 6: 5).

May our hearts be “comforted, being knit together in love”(Col. 2: 2), that the Lord may call our home “Zion”(Moses 7: 18).