Day 27

I love the poem “Footprints in the Sand”.  It reminds me that Jesus not only walks with me when I need Him but at times He even carries me.  I can depend completely on Him when I feel inadequate.

Footprints in the Sand

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.
Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.
Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,
other times there were one set of footprints.
This bothered me because I noticed
that during the low periods of my life,
when I was suffering from
anguish, sorrow or defeat,
I could see only one set of footprints.
So I said to the Lord,
“You promised me Lord,
that if I followed you,
you would walk with me always.
But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life
there have only been one set of footprints in the sand.
Why, when I needed you most, you have not been there for me?”
The Lord replied,
“The times when you have seen only one set of footprints in the sand,
is when I carried you.”
By Mary Stevenson
We all need someone to be there for us in difficult times.

I woke up to the sound of the phone ringing.  I looked at my alarm clock. Three a.m.

I heard my dad talking on the phone in serious tones. He was asking about my older brother, Ervan.  When I heard him ask, “Is he going to live?” I knew something terrible had happened to my brother.

For the next few months most of my parent’s time was given to visiting my sick brother in the hospital. When he was finally well enough to come home they were busy taking care of him. They had to prepare special meals for him, and feed him, and change his dressings among other things. In time he healed and became independent again.

While my brother was sick he depended on my parents. My parents never neglected the rest of us but like a shepherd caring for a lame lamb until he is healed they had to give him a lot of extra care. During this time I’m sure my brother developed a very close relationship with my mom and dad because they spent so much time together.

There are times in our lives too that as His child God has to carry us.  We depend on him completely.  Sometimes it’s as we go through a difficult time in our life, like a divorce or an illness, or a financial crisis.  When situations are out of our control and we feel lost He comes and walks the dark hills reaching His hands out to us and carries us back to that safe place close to Him.  He cares for us as we depend completely on Him.

A shepherd has to leave his other sheep as he looks for the lost or hurt lamb, and a parent is forced to neglect the healthy child temporarily because of  their limitations. Unlike the shepherd and our parents, God isn’t limited.  He is with us 100% of the time while He is with the extra needy 100% of the time.  He never leaves us or forsakes us.
“If a man has a hundred sheep, and one wanders away and is lost, what will he do?  Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others and go into the hills to search for the lost one?”  Matthew 18:12 [The Living Bible]

“God has said, ‘I will never, never fail you nor forsake you.’” Hebrews 13:5 [The Living Bible]
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I want to walk with you spiritually this year, inviting you to read the Bible through from cover to cover; from Genesis 1 all the way to Revelation 22:21.  If that sounds too difficult for you and your kids, you can join in again after you have taken a break or join us for the days you’re up to it.  We will start on Sunday, January 18th and finish Saturday, January 16, 2010.  I promise that you will understand the Bible in a much deeper way if you read it through from cover to cover in a year’s time.

Accept my challenge to read the Bible through in one year chronologically, including the Old and the New Testament.

Day 27 Today read:
Exodus 4:1-5:21
Matthew 18:1-20
Psalm 22:19-31
Proverbs 5:15-21

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The carol, It Came Upon the Midnight Clear, only mentions Jesus once, saying, “Peace on the earth, good will to all, From heaven’s all gracious king.”  And that was God’s message to us.

The words the angels brought to a fallen and broken world was of peace and goodwill.  Angels proclaimed their message to a weary world. Isn’t that like our world today?  Isn’t that like us?  I think of the homeless, bending low, who toil along the way with painful steps and slow; the people who struggle with addictions and life threats; the people who have lost loved ones; the families who don’t speak to each other anymore.

We all long for peace.  These words are for us on days when our steps are painful and slow, when our forms are bent low. They give us hope of a better day when peace will reign on earth.  They assure us that eventually God will heal our brokenness. And this Christmas season we can be a part of bringing God’s peace to the needy and hurting by blessing them; by giving of our abundance.  We can bring the message of God’s love and peace to the hurting in our world.
1.It came upon a midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth,
To touch their harps of gold.
“Peace on the earth, good will to men,
From Heaven’s all gracious King.”
The World in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing

2. Still through the cloven skies they come,
With peaceful wings unfurled,
And still their heav’nly music floats
O’er all the weary world.
Above its sad and lowly plains
They bend on hovering wing.
And ever o’er its Babel sounds
The blessed angels sing.

3. And ye beneath life’s crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow:
Look now, for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing;
O rest beside the weary road,
And hear the angels sing.

4. For lo! the days are hastening on,
By prophet-bards foretold,
When, with the ever-circling years,
Comes round the age of gold.
When peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendors fling,
And the whole world give back the song
Which now the angels sing.

The lyrics of “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” were born out of a pastor’s struggle to make the message of Christmas new to his congregation.  His people, like us, heard the same message every Christmas; Jesus is born.  After a while it becomes mundane and we value it a little less.

But Edmund Sears, who was thirty-nine at the time and a Unitarian minister from Wayland, Massachusetts, found a way to make the message new. As he read the Christmas story of how the angels proclaimed Christ’s birth to the shepherds, he must have thought, what else is there to say about God who came as a baby to save us from sin and despair?

This all happened in the year of 1849 long before The War Between the States.  Slavery with the poverty and hopelessness it brought reigned in the US. Edmund Sears cared about the poor and wanted to reach out to them. So he wrote the poem which became a treasured Christmas carol, lasting through the centuries.

The poem was published in a church magazine and made Sears famous with his profound words.  Later Richard Storrs Willis, who is thought to have been a student of Felix Mendelssohn, composed the melody for this carol. Willis was an editor and music critic for the New York Tribune. Here is an interesting fact: the acceptance of this carol was the beginning of celebrating Christmas in New England as a holiday, which has been prohibited by the Puritans until now.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, the well known American poet, said that this is one of the finest and most beautiful hymns ever written.  And I believe as we sing it this Christmas season the same thought resonates in our hearts.

In the same way that Dr. Sears wanted the Christmas message to touch his church’s heart again I too wanted to make the Christmas story real to our children.  That is why I wrote and published a new Christmas book, A Christmas Present for Goliath.  This story is about the camel who carried the Magi’s gifts to Jesus that first Christmas so long ago.  You can learn about this book and order it at my website www.ruthwillms.com/goliath.html

“They ran to the village and found their way to Mary and Joseph.  And there was the baby, lying in the manger.”  Luke 2: 15 and 16

The shepherds ran to find baby Jesus.  Did you catch that?  They didn’t just saunter over or even just hurry; they ran.  This Christmas season we too can run with the shepherds in making time, worshipping Jesus in a deeper sense than ever before.  We need to see Him- to really connect.  That takes time. 

It takes time to immerse ourselves in God’s Word and  really think about it instead of reading it while we’re actually thinking mostly about what to buy that special person on our shopping list.  But there is a payoff for us too as we run to Jesus.  Just as the shepherds got to see Him personally as they rushed to his manger side, Jesus manifests Himself to us as we draw near to Him.

We can help our children and grandchildren see beyond the glitter of the Christmas season and teach them the true meaning of Christmas- Christ’s birth.  We can sing “Away in a Manger” with them. This carol is all about our love for the Lord Jesus and our trust in His faithful care.

PS:  Another way you can make Jesus more real to your children this Christmas season is to read my new book “A Christmas Present for Goliath” with them.  This book gives them a brand new perspective on the wise men’s visit to see the Messiah.  Visit my web page http://www.ruthwillms.com/goliath.html to learn all about it.
Away in a manger, no crib for a bed,
The little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head.
The stars in the bright sky looked down where he lay,
The little lord Jesus asleep on the hay.

The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes,
But little Lord Jesus no crying he makes.
I love thee, Lord Jesus! Look down from the sky,
And stay by my bedside till morning is nigh.

Be near me, Lord Jesus; I ask thee to stay
Close by me for ever and love me, I pray.
Bless all the dear children in thy tender care,
And fit us for heaven to live with thee there.

Although some claim that Martin Luther composed this childlike carol it is actually anonymous.  It was first printed in the US in 1885 as part of the collection “Dainty Songs for Little Lads and Lasses”.  The song touched James R. Murray’s heart causing him to print it here with the title “Luther’s Cradle Song”. This could be why the carol is mistakenly attributed to Luther.

Others want to credit Murray with the composition while still, others think the lyrics come from Robert Burns’ “Flow Gently, Sweet Afton”. Some say it may have been written by a member of a German Lutheran colony from Pennsylvania.  The tune, “Cradle Song” was composed by William James Kirkpatrick.

In the early 1900’s a Methodist minister, John T. McFarland added the third verse because it was desired for a church children’s day program.

Many hymn books exclude this carol because of its unscriptural words regarding the cattle are lowing, the baby awakes, but no crying he makes.  I think that this imagery makes the Bible story clear to children.

In the same way dramas performed through out our churches make Jesus’ birth more real to us each Christmas.  This all began in 1224 thanks to an innovative spiritual leader. That’s the Christmas that St. Francis of Assisi faced a dilemma.  He believed that the message of Christ’s birth had become so intellectual that it was aloof and dogmatic.  He wanted to simplify the message so it would touch the common people’s hearts.  It was then that he decided to dramatize the Christmas story.

He set up a nativity scene with the stable scene right in his church.  When his congregation arrived on Christmas Eve they were so excited.  Finally they could understand. The scene of Jesus’ birth was real to them. And yes, for the first time there was even a manger introduced in the Christmas service. This goes hand in hand with “Away in a Manger”, the carol children sing on Christmas Eve in their church programs, while dressed in the characters of that first Christmas. And always there is that manger, right in the center of the scene.