Good morning, friends.
Our verse for today comes from Acts 7:23, “Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.”
This month is an especially busy month for birthdays in my extended family. In the first three weeks alone, we have birthdays for my sister, my cousin, my brother-in-law, my uncle, my niece, my daughter, and my mom were she still alive. Some have or had reached their 80’s, the youngest is not quite a teenager, and the rest are sprinkled about somewhere in between. And even though none of them is or is turning forty, I can say with almost absolute certainty that something has come into each of their hearts. Being that we are on the cusp of Christmas, some of their hearts may be inclined as was Moses’ to go and be with kinfolk. If twelve months have passed since the last time they saw some, then there might be great anticipation to reunite and embrace and rekindle and relive old memories. Christmas might also be filling the hearts of some to give and do as a way to somehow make up for lost time and missed opportunities from a year that didn’t go as hoped. Some birthdays might be thought of as one of their final few, and as such, might bring memories of a tapestry of God’s grace and life’s adventure that now seems to have flown by. Those dwindling years that remain might also strike a pang of sadness for what is no longer and what never quite came to pass. For a twelve year old who is “cursed” with a birthday only a few days before Christmas, her heart might simply be wondering if there is enough money and energy and time for two celebrations, or will the two holidays be morphed into one.
Something has come into your heart, if for no other reason than the magnitude of the buildup to and focus on December 25th. But other, more personal things are also swirling around, leaving their mark on your soul as another year is about to end. You may be excited to leave behind 2019 and start afresh in 2020, or the next few weeks and months might hold immense uncertainty and anxiety. It’s in there, weighing on your heart, just as it is mine. So can I ask you to ask God to help us, whoever we are that needs help. Ask for lasting joy and the faith that brings it. Ask for peace and the forgiveness that brings it. Ask for love and the Son who embodies it. Ask, that He will give again, as He gave on that holy, wonderful, blessed night.
As we seek Him today, let your heart be part of what you give this season to get what comes only from above.
Have a magnificent weekend.
#4 Rich Holt
Dad of Ripken, Koy, TrishaJean, Samantha, Kakie Holiday and Raleigh
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them.
