\n
Can you imagine the stench?<\/p>\n
Joseph has walked and Mary ridden 90 miles in the scorching sun, the wind whipping around their faces and caking them with dust from the dirt road. More sweat pours from Mary\u2019s brow as she experiences the pains of labor for the first time. The stable is packed with all the travelers\u2019 animals. Flies buzz around them in the heat and the air is heavy with the smells of sickly sweet hay and kmanure.<\/p>\n
And into this, a baby enters.<\/p>\n
I have witnessed this kind of birth before. Woman sighs and baby falls right into the dirt and in the dark of a tiny mud hut with the light of just a thin candle our eyes search for something, anything, sharp to cut the cord. Water is a luxury and too far to fetch at this hour so we wrap the baby in whatever filthy rag-scraps we can find without even wiping her off first.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>
<\/p>\n
Joseph, still merely a child himself, searches for anything he can find in the dim light to cut the cord and swaddle his child, probably rags carrying the afore mentioned stench and the dirt of the journey. Trembling and exhausted they wrap Him as best they can, and swatting flies away lay him in the same trough out of which these animals have been eating.<\/p>\n
Behold, the Savior.<\/p>\n
And in this moment God fulfils every promise and every prophecy. This, God\u2019s perfect time. God does not wait for the world to get ready, He enters right into the mess.<\/p>\n
He makes Himself very least, no more status or opportunity than an easily overlooked infant in the slums where I spend so many hard hours. Very least so that He can commune with the very most desperate \u2013 you and me. He doesn\u2019t mind that I am not ready yet and He doesn\u2019t mind the wretched condition of my heart or the stench of my sin. God\u2019s time is now<\/i> and He enters into the mess, ready or not.<\/p>\n
His perfect timing, now<\/i>. Now is where He has called us. And we are just not ready yet. We need to clean up the house a bit and pray a little more and seek more counsel and we don\u2019t know how to do that yet and oh, we have our excuses. And God says, \u201cI\u2019m here now, and I am ok with the mess because I am here for the messy<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n
God doesn\u2019t need us to be ready for Him; He has been ready for us since the beginning of time and the Messiah is here calling us to commune with the Holy One, to eat at His table.<\/p>\n
I want the house to be organized and kids to be clean and nicely dressed and I want dinner to come out of the oven on time, but at the end of the day they laundry still piles and there are still crumbs in the corner and can anyone remember if I brushed my teeth today? And it can\u2019t be the New Year yet because I am just not ready<\/i> for it to be a new year yet.<\/p>\n
But I remember when I wasn\u2019t ready to move to Uganda. I remember when I wasn\u2019t ready to kiss the people I loved the most goodbye. I remember when I didn\u2019t have enough money to start a ministry, and I remember when I wasn\u2019t old enough to be a mother, and I remember when I didn\u2019t know how to parent. I remember when I couldn\u2019t cook for fifteen people and when I didn\u2019t want to share my house and my things and my life with sick people and addicts. I remember when I was afraid of the slum community that now holds hundreds of friends and when I was terrified that my daughter would never walk and when I was scared that we would never heal after tragic loss. And I remember that never, not once, was I really as ready as I wanted to be. And I remember that God kept all His promises<\/i>, <\/i>every last one, in His perfect time.<\/p>\n
This new season looms and I don\u2019t know what is next. But He doesn\u2019t need me to be ready for this season because He is ready.<\/i> He just needs me to be clinging to His feet.<\/p>\n
Now, God\u2019s perfect time.<\/p>\n
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over here again. humbled. Can you imagine the stench? Joseph has walked and Mary ridden 90 miles in the scorching sun, the wind whipping around their faces and caking them with dust from the dirt road. More sweat pours from Mary\u2019s brow as she exper…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":350,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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