Is it really Monday!?

As I was driving back to Kentucky this morning the guy on the radio said "happy Monday!" I shook my head and thought "dude is it really Monday already?!" Last week is a blur and it seems like just yesterday I was blogging about Thanksgiving. So here we are Monday afternoon. A new church calendar year started yesterday and we are anticipating Christmas morning when we celebrate Jesus' birthday. I drive through a couple of major cities on my way from Toulon, IL. As I was driving through the cities I was watching the hustle and bustle of the Christmas shopping and trying to find the best deal. I wonder if that is what the first Christmas was like... Mary and Joseph were headed to Bethlehem because of a census. Something we do even today. In the United States a census of the number of people living in the states is done every 10 years. I heard on the news the other day that the 2010 census people are being hired right now. It is a lot of hustle and bustle to get a census done. Back then each person had to report to the city in which they were from. For Joseph he was from Bethlehem. Not an easy trip from where he was living at the time. I sometimes wonder if he toiled with the thought about leaving Mary behind but back then it was the law that you had to present your entire family. I bet there was a lot of packing and planning that went into play as they prepared to go to Bethlehem but also prepared for the birth of their son Jesus. When I rushed to get packed and to leave last week after hearing of the death of my future father in law I thought about what is important to pack and why do we pack it. As we prepare for Christmas there are somethings that we should pack in our bags just like Mary and Joseph packed into theirs as they prepared for Jesus' coming. Love is the first thing we have to pack. It is the greatest thing that God gives us. Love from Him and love for others. You can see God's love all around us from the clouds in the sky to the people who are in our lives. Faith is another thing that we need to pack in our bags. Faith is defined in Webster as: "a (1) : belief and trust in and loyalty to God (2) : belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion b (1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2) : complete trust" Faith in something we can't see. Sometimes it is hard to see God working. I can't imagine what Mary was thinking as she looked down at her growing belly. Faith that everything is going to be alright that God's plan is perfect and never fails. Some times that is easy to say and do then other times so difficult it paralyzes you. That is where hope comes in, the last thing to put in our bags today. In staff today we talked about our hopes for the Christmas season. Hope is something that we hold on to in times when everything else seems to fall apart around us. When I think of hope I think of Abraham. A man of many lessons for us but one being home. In the book of Romans it states: "Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be."" Hope is something that is lost easily and hard to get back. When we hope for something and then it doesn't happen or the worst happens we get hardened to having more hope. Before Jesus was born people hoped and prayed for a Messiah. For many the Messiah that showed up was not what they were hoping for. Sometimes what we hope for doesn't happen or it does but just in a different way. God always has a plan and His plan is perfect. As we look forward to Christmas and celebrating Jesus' birthday we also look forward to Jesus' return.