This is our first Christmas episode - you will need some tinsel or something sparkly and 2 plastic cups as well as your instrument to join in this week. Next week we will finish the story and then take a break until January. There are of course loads of episodes on YouTube in the archive - so feel free to add some Thankful moments to your festive break! Don't forget the thankful thought below for the grown-ups. Blessings Claire xx
Thankful Thought Thursday December 9th – Unexpected Angels & Journeys Luke Chap 1 – 2 v.5
The Christmas story is so familiar it is sometimes easy to dismiss it’s cosmic significance. I was struck this year by how unexpected and inconvenient it must have been to those experiencing it at the time. Especially Mary. Luke’s Gospel includes the prelude to Mary’s Angel visit and includes the visit to her cousin – in – law, Zacharias and the birth of John to Elizabeth. Mary and Elizabeth spend 3 months together, supporting each other and sharing the joy and perhaps the stresses of angel announced pregnancies.
Here was a Godfearing family, who suddenly found themselves in the company of angels and part of God’s rescue plan for the world. It must have been so tough for Mary – young, engaged and then pregnant but not married. Then the inconvenience of the journey to Bethlehem to register which led to giving birth in a stable. That’s before the many strange visitors and having to flee to Egypt!
What parallels do you sense with this Christmas and Covid restrictions?
Who have you spent months with sharing prophesies from God and supporting to try and your understanding of events of our times? Have you an Elizabeth – Mary – friendship? If you haven’t yet found your prayer partner for this season – someone you can regularly chat to, walk, talk and pray with, study the bible together with – I would encourage you to find them and start the new year in that kind of Godly bubble -waiting together in eager anticipation of how God will use you both to unfold his plan.
Just as Mary I am sure had not planned to have her first child, out of wedlock and far from home in a stable – how has covid messed up your plans to celebrate this season? The amazing thing about the Christmas story is God was working all these things together for good and making sure that the prophesy that his son would be born in Bethlehem would come true, exactly when the new star appeared. What could God be bringing together for you this Christmas season – perhaps not your plans but His? How exciting is that – I can’t wait to hear in the new year what unexpected Godly events unfolded for us all this Christmas 2020.
Blessings Claire xxx