Day 23 – Lo! How a Rose E’er Blooming

This is such an interesting time to be alive. The world shudders with the implications of the pandemic and people wonder what each day will bring. Change. Transition. Adaptation. The onslaught of emotions and thoughts brings the world to its knees.

Yet, as we celebrate Christmas, we can be absolutely sure God is not surprised. After all, from the beginning of time, God planned for Jesus to come to deliver us from sin. We rarely use that word… sin. What does it really mean? Sin is our personal rebellion against God. It is our constant choice to do life “our way” rather than fulfill His pre-ordained destiny and purpose for our lives.

In the same way that prophets told of the coming of Jesus through the lineage of Jesse generations and centuries before He arrived, God also planned for each of us to be born at this time in history, for this generation, to fulfill His special purposes through us. Your life matters.

As you reflect on Christmas and Jesus’ coming, take a moment and realize you, too, were created by God to fulfill an important role in history (His Story), right here and right now. And God waits to reveal that purpose to you every day as you seek Him, listen, and obey.

May you find hope and excitement in the fact that God has a wonderful plan for your life and He stands waiting this Christmas to reveal it to you as you anticipate 2021! May we fulfill His purposes and live the life we were created to live!

Lo, how a rose e’er blooming
From tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse’s lineage coming
As men of old have sung.
It came a floweret bright,
Amid the cold of winter,
When half spent was the night.

Isaiah ’twas foretold it,
The rose I have in mind;
With Mary we behold it,
The virgin mother kind.
To show God’s love aright,
She bore to men a Savior,
When half spent was the night.

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

For we are His workmanship [His own master work, a work of art], created in Christ Jesus [reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, ready to be used] for good works, which God prepared [for us] beforehand [taking paths which He set], so that we would walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us]. (Ephesians 2:10 Amplified)