The Thanksgiving Day Parade

Well, I hope that all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration yesterday.  Our day ended up being slightly different than I had originally anticipated it to be.  After taking great pains on Wednesday to be all set for Thanksgiving at Piper’s folks, which included having a special holiday outfit set out for Piper to wear, I was up in the middle of the night with some physical distress, was not feeling too hot on Thanksgiving morning and ended up spending the majority of the day on the couch at home recuperating!

But alas, not all was a total loss as we got to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade which was always a favorite for my wife, followed by a modern version of the 1940’s movie “Miracle on 34^th Street.”  At the end of the parade one of the trio of announcers mentioned in closing that this parade signaled the official beginning of the Holiday Season for the city of New York, as well as for many families across the country.  That statement got me to thinking about what events signaled the start of the Holiday Season for me and my readers.

While I can’t necessarily say that the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade was always the initiator of my Holiday spirit, I can say that the Thanksgiving weekend definitely guided my focus into the direction of Christmas and all the events associated with this special time of year.  How about you?  Are there any special events, traditions, or other activities that work as an official starter for your Holiday Season?  Drop me a note in the Comment section at the end of this post and let us all know.  It will be fun to share those key events with each other!

This morning as I looked at the traditional Bible record of the Christmas Story in the second chapter of the book of Luke, I thought about what it was that may have been the original initiator for this world wide event.  Most times when I hear the story of the first Christmas it begins not with the angel appearing to Zachariah or even to Mary, but with the announcement of the census by the governor Quirinius of Syria.  The very idea of that census and the problems and inconveniences that it must have caused the people of Israel captured my imagination.  It more than likely could not have come at a worse time as far as Mary and Joseph were concerned.  With the impending birth of the baby due at any time, the thought of the harshness and danger of travel for days on the back of a beast of burden would have been downright unconceivable!

But through it all, God had a plan… a perfect plan!  Many times we are faced with inconceivable situations that are placed upon us by forces beyond our control.  Those situations may not seem right or fair in our eyes and it is hard to observe any good coming from the event.  It is easy to complain and or feel sorry for ourselves at those times.  But you know?  I don’t read anywhere in the stories of the event recorded in the books of Matthew and Luke where either Mary or Joseph complained about what was set before them.  Although they could not see the finish line ahead, they knew that God had His hand in the situation.  They prepared as much as they could in the natural and then stepped out in faith to flow in line with God’s ultimate purpose for it all.

I was reading this morning from a commentary by John Darby on that first Christmas and he made some interesting statements about the unseen and all powerful hand of God in how things came about.  He said, “All the imperial glory (and power of the Roman Empire) is but an instrument in the hands of God for the fulfillment of his counsels…” (John Darby’s Synopsis of the Bible, Luke 2:1-52)  What we see in this story is the most powerful army in the world, who thinks that they hold total and complete control and dominion over the people of the land, being unknowing used like clay in the hands of God!

We may sometimes think that the government, or the company that we work for, or whatever forces are visibly behind the hard situations we find ourselves in, are just too big for us to fight.  Well, while it is true that they might be bigger than us, they are but clay in the hands of our Almighty God!  So, I guess the question is what or better yet who are you going to trust to fight the battles you face.  I think that I’ll choose the same as Mary and Joseph did in the midst of the extremely hard time that they faced.  I heard someone say that while we only see the beginning of the situation, God sees the end of it!  Since He knows what’s ahead, and has ALL the tools and ability to meet and beat the difficulties, then I think I’ll catch a ride with Him.  It reminds me of that old advertising tagline for Greyhound Bus lines that encouraged us to “Go Greyhound and leave the driving to us!”

Have a great weekend and Holiday Season!  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting today?”