Do You Have A Message Of Great Joy?

Well, there’s only a couple of days left until Christmas.  How are all your preparations for this most wonderful commemoration going?  Our stockings have been hung by the chimney with care, and I am ready to end this year without having a care…  How about you?  Are you prepared to set aside all the anxieties of 2010, and enter into the new year proclaiming an expectation of joyful news for the coming years, like the angel did to the shepherds in Bethlehem a few thousand years ago? (see Luke 2:1-20)

Let’s think about that scene for a few moments.  Here we have a group of men expecting to go through another routine night watching over the sacrificial lambs that were kept in the hills near the town of Bethlehem, when suddenly all the expectations of their lives were dramatically changed in but a moment of time.  The story says that as the angel of the Lord appeared to them, the glory of the Lord lit up the sky.  After he related his message to the stunned shepherds, this angel was then joined by a multitude of angelic hosts.  When this story was originally penned, the word “hosts” was a common term used to describe troops of armed soldiers.  One of my commentaries said that the translation of “a multitude” could better be translated “THE multitude.” 

Imagine, then, if you can, the shepherds are sleepily tending their sheep, when suddenly the darkness surrounding them turns to daylight, as all  the angelic armies of heaven appear before them to enforce the lone angel’s message, as well as highlight the event that was occurring in a stable behind the inn in the town.

What was this message?  It was the Good News that would finally give you and I the ability to come back home to the One that created us.  It was the message of my foundation that gives me the confidence to have expectations of great joy in my life in the coming year, even when circumstance may try to dictate a different story.

Think about this message as being the real reason for the Christmas season.  On Saturday as you enjoy your family traditions, give a consideration to that baby that was laid in a manger in Bethlehem and ponder the possibility of your foundation being supported by the multitude of angelic hosts, fully arrayed in battle regalia, ready to assure that your expectations for 2011 are met each day… just for you!  Stay tuned and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting today?”