In case you don’t know, Kathie’s and my favorite time of the year is Christmas. We go all out! Our house gets decorated the day after Halloween. We have amassed so much stuff that we’ve probably funded college for the children of the man who owns the Christmas light factory. Storing this stuff is getting to be a challenge.
We were setting up the inflatables and noticed the one of them. This particular one had been faithfully used for many years. It was one of our favorites, but it has seen better days. As I waded it up to through it in the trashcan, Kathie said, “Let me see if I can get it working.” So she began checking every connection, and sure enough got it working again!
A dark city
There was a group of people who lived in a city who were kind of like our almost-to-be discarded Christmas inflatable. In fact, a man wrote a song about them and their city:
O’ little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lay,
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by,
Yet in thy dark streets shineth, the everlasting light,
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.
The prophet Micah tells us that it was to this little insignificant city, whose best days seem to be over, that God says:
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.” (Micah 5:2)
You will shine again
There’s a direct parallel between these words and people who feel that they are no longer useful and/or seem destined for the junk heap. People who look up and see nothing but the black night skies and settle into dreamless sleep. The Lord is saying to you, “Although you may look like nothing, out of you shall come such great things!”
Let every Christmas decoration you see this season, especially the inflatable ones, remind you that God hasn’t forgotten about you. And he’s able to work on your life in a way that will cause it to shine once again.
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