This time of year fills me with a sense of awe and wonder.
It’s the time of year that I choose to deeply ponder the coming of Christ in flesh. The reminders are all around me; the house is decorated for the month long ‘birthday party’. The city streets in our rural communities have their wreaths attached to the light poles reminiscent of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’.
One of the things that I wonder about though, is this: ‘Did Mary have a wonderful life?’ She was the one chosen to carry and birth and raise the son of God. Religions revere her, some even pray to her as if she is a holy icon. She was just a girl. A girl with a heart of faith and trust and submission. She was chosen, but it was not through a ‘pageant’ where the winner won the right to carry the son of God. Basically, it was not about her, it was about God and his promised covenant and it was the right time.
‘How can this be?’ was her question to the angel who bore the news. It was not a question of disbelief. It was a question with an underlying tone of acceptance. Imagine what our lives would look like if instead of questioning God on whether he knows what he is doing or demanding a ‘sign’ that what he is saying is true, we simply believed. We simply trusted.
One of the many truths he whispers to us is this: he is for us. What if we said, ‘How can it be?’ instead of ‘How can I know this is true?’ Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist had a heavenly visitor as well, but his response is remarkable different, but the significance can be easily missed. He wanted to intellectually wrap his brain around the angel’s news rather than embrace it with a heart of faith.
It could be the large age difference between Zechariah and Mary that birthed the two very different responses. We could justify Zechariah’s response by saying that he probably sought God for years on this very subject (the desire for a child), and years passed with the answer of ‘no’. I understand where he is coming from. I think we all have petitioned God for something or someone and the answer we receive is not the deeply desired ‘yes’, but the deeply feared ‘no’.
Mary, a young woman, not hardened by the burdens and seasons of life, had the faith of a child. A faith we are all called to have. A faith that can only come from the Father. Even that is amazing! We don’t have to stir up this faith on our own, we simply have to believe and let him build our faith. No matter our age.
Do you think Zechariah ever doubted the Lord’s goodness and ways again? He had more than nine months to wrestle with his need for ‘reassurance’, all the while seeing with his own eyes the Lord’s plan unfolding–whether he believed the Lord or not. Could he have been bursting to share with others what God had done for him and Elizabeth?
But I think there is a bigger picture here than what we see on the surface.
It wasn’t about Zechariah and Elizabeth at all.
It wasn’t about Mary at all.
It wasn’t about the key players in the Christmas story.
It was about God and his plan to redeem the world.
To redeem you and me. And that is the greatest gift.
But even then it’s not about us.
What would happen if we changed our perspective on answered prayer or unanswered prayer, whichever way you want to look at it, and saw not through the lens of receiving blessing, but we saw through the lens of what God wants in the overall big picture of this world, and how he wants us to bless him, through it all.
Through all the yes’ and all the no’s.
We can turn it all into praise.
We can accept, with a faith filled heart, his promise that he is for us, asking, ‘How can it be?’, and then watch the Lord’s promise unfold in ways that take out breath away.
We are all worshipers, whether we realize it or not, we all worship something or someone. We were designed that way, and we will fill our spirit’s with something or someone until we surrender to the living God.
Worship is all about relationship. It’s about relationship with the Holy God who needs nothing from us yet longs to know us and be known by him. So, first, as a worshiper of the one true God and as a worship leader in my local church body, I want to encourage you with some truths I have learned along the way…
You delight God when you bow your heart before him.
You delight God when you bow your body before him.
You delight God when you sing a new song.
You delight him when you remember all he has done in your life.
You delight him when you choose thanksgiving over fretting.
You delight God when you obey him.
You delight him when you join together in unity with other believers in one voice to sing of his goodness and mercy.
You delight him when you allow yourself to be overcome by the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit and you lay your inhibitions down and care only what your God thinks of you.
You delight God.
You delight him when you look up to him with hands open ready to receive whatever he has for you.
You delight him when you lead out in song of praise to him.
You delight him when you choose his ways over your ways.
You delight him when you seek to understand what he wants from you in worship/life.
You are his delight.
You are.
He sings over you.
As you sing of your delight in him, he is singing of his delight over you.
He dances all around you.
As you engage in a physical expression of praise, he dances with you.
You delight him when your mind and your spirit is wholly engaged in spirit and in truth.
You are his delight.
So, my fellow worshipers, worship is much more than congregational singing, it is a way of life. Worship is not static. Worship involves movement, literally and figuratively. Move your heart closer to him through your daily choice to obey him. As you do, you will be changed, never to be the same again.
I love to watch the intensity of the sun change through the seasons. I love the gentle light of spring and the bright light of winter and the intense light of summer and fading light of fall. I prefer curtain-less windows so light can stream in and wash me in it’s warmth and light.
It’s the light that changes my perspective. The brilliance of the light surrounding the branch holding these leaves to the point where you cannot see any distinguishing marks of the branch itself, reminds me that that is who I am in Christ. It’s how I want to be seen, by not being seen at all, but all there is to see is the brilliance of Christ engulfing me and surrounding me. That is my heart’s cry.
But I also need the light to illuminate the areas that Christ wants me to surrender to his redeeming work. When his light shines into those hidden places of my heart I see things that shame me because I know better, but there they are, lurking in the dark recesses of my heart, but nothing, absolutely nothing is hidden from God. Nothing.
So as painful as it is to be wrong, it is for my best. Because as I trade in my darkness for his light, I shine brighter and his work in my life is highlighted and he receives all the glory because I cannot trade:
pride for humility,
my people-approval seeking heart for a God-approval seeking heart,
jealousy for rejoicing,
comparison for contentment,
in my own strength and will power.
It is impossible for me, but nothing is impossible in the hands of a gracious God.
He is so gracious. I fall, and he helps me up, dusts me off, and sets me on my feet again. I fail and he wraps me in forgiveness. His kindness leads me to repentance.
His mercies are brand new every morning. Each day is an opportunity to shine a little brighter for him. Each day is an opportunity to be transformed to be more like him.
To shine as bright as the sun, filled with the son.
