Come, Let Us Adore Him

 

I don't know what went through your mind when your read the title.  Maybe you tapped on this article out of curiosity.  Maybe there was a hint of cynicism as you think that sounds musical and like a peaceful scene and your heart feels far from peaceful and to worship sounds excruciating.  Or maybe you chose to read this because, you too, found that adoration and worship isn't limited to the peaceful and good scenes in your life.  Worship and adoration are the wind in our sails, the doorway that opens up to peace, and the anchor to our soul as we hold the realities of hardship, grief, lament along with hope and faith.

It's easy to paint the scene of the nativity with calm and peace. Amidst the peace and calm that was present the night Jesus was born, there was also the reality that there was no room in an inn where comfort would have been for Mary to birth Jesus. Disappointment. There was the reality that the barn stinks, odors of the cattle, smells of the hay and dung. Not perfect or pleasant. The shepherds who came, came from the hillside.  They came from work, as they were.  No curated attire or taking the time to look-just-right.

"A Saviour was born", announced the angel.  The shepherds received the message and said, "Let us go straight to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened.  Let us go see what the Lord has made known to us."  They went.  They went in a hurry, with haste, very likely leaving behind the flock of sheep on the hillside.  They ran to the stable and worshipped.  They worshipped the infant, giving Him the gift of adoration right in the middle of life and all that it held.  The mundane of work, the smells, the treatment of the Romans on their minds were laid down as they worshipped the Saviour, the One who came, the One who was promised to them ages ago.  

Jesus, the One who came, is now here after 400 years of not hearing from any prophet or priest.

The truth of worship and adoration is that hardship, stinky smells, and pain aren't annulled.  Remembering who God is and praising Him and giving thanks to Him, is the air to our lungs and changes the posture of our heart to receive Him. 

The stinky barn smells become the aroma of holy ground.  In the middle of disappointments and pain, peace smiles as we learn to know the Prince of Peace.  

Life holds the both/and.  Jesus' coming did not erase pain and hardship.  In many ways, it intensified it as light collided with darkness.  Jesus' coming contains the promise that the serpent, Satan would be defeated some day and that does not go without a fight, a battle.

We, too, can come to worship and adore Him, just as we are.  We come with our pain, the disappointments, and the realities that are, oh so real and give thanks for Jesus as our Comforter.  He is the Prince of Peace that calms our hearts within the storm or calms the storm.  We camp under His wings and find a refuge. We come because we choose to learn to trust the One who came.  We come and peace pervades.  The Greek word for peace is eirene meaning peace, rest, quietness, set at one again.

Satan was defeated at the resurrection but not destroyed forever.  Today we are still in this battle between light and darkness, pain and hope, control and trust.  Our worship and adoration is the posture for victory and peace.

Jesus came to set us at one with Himself, not the world around us.  We can have a quietness within our hearts, even in the most unpleasant circumstances.  When we worship and adore Jesus because of who He is, it becomes the doorway for peace to envelope our heart and mind.  He is the Door, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Come.  Let us adore Him.

Come, is the continual invitation of Jesus, the One who came.

Come, as you are, with all that you hold within your heart and mind.

Come and worship the One who came. For you.

When Peace on Earth Doesn't Look or Feel Like Peace on Earth

There's a piece of this Christmas, birth story of Jesus that is a bit unsettling and one that the answers lay shrouded. 

We talk of peace on earth, and rightly so. The angels said, "Glory to God in the Highest and on earth peace among men." Luke 2:14 

What do we do with the result of Herod's reaction to feeling threatened? When he discovered he was duped by the wise men, he was worried that a young boy would take his throne so he had the little boys three and under killed. 

Little ones lost their lives in the wake of Jesus' earthly arrival. 

Peace on earth? That doesn't sound like peace. 

We too, have things that happen that make no sense and we question the way of Jesus and what He is doing.  We experience the loss of our loved ones.  Rejection, trauma, and disappointments leave their mark.  In the wake of men and women's fears, death and evil happens. 

What do we do with all this?

What happens to us, may leave us wailing and with more questions than clarity. 

But the greatest truth above any darkness is that in the darkness Jesus came. Peace came and still comes because Peace is a Person.

He wants us to know Him for who He is more than what He does and what happens to us.  He wants to show us more of Himself.  So often we turn away.  The pain can be so great and the questions so tumultuous that in our human way of processing we can't make sense of it.  We have a hard time connecting Jesus to the painfilled situation.

Learning to trust Jesus is a journey and process but it is what He wants us to learn, even in the darkness and when things don't make sense.   He sees perfectly and understands the truest form and way to life. 

Those mothers who wailed those nights long ago - I wonder what they would tell us if we could ask them about the night they lost their sons?  What would they say to a heart holding grief that feels so unbearable?

For me, for you - He is still Immanuel, with us in whatever we walk through - the fire, the waters, with us in the pain and He wants us to know who He is.

Redeemer. Comforter. Counselor. Guide. And so much more. 

Who is He to you, right now, in whatever you are facing and walking through?  Maybe all you can cry out is, " Lord, help my unbelief." That's okay.  That's the cry of faith that God wants to answer - learning to trust Him when it's the hardest to do so. 

John 14:27 - "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful."

Philippians 4:7 - And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

God's Presence With Us in the Forging That Happens in the Darkness

 

Psalm 23: 4 - Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou are with me; Thy rod and staff they comfort me. 

I hate pain.  I hate pain of any sort, physical, emotional, and mental.  I hate to see you in pain and walking through hardships.  I'll be honest - I want to right it, to fix it for you.  At least, may I give you tools to navigate it all.

But more and more I realize and most of the time I am in its mystery, that the wrestling in hardship and pain works a good that we otherwise don't experience.  As much as I have a dislike for pain, I am learning to trust my Master.

A friend wrote a line that has stuck with me, "Sometimes helping can be hurting."  For her it's in her position as a doula, helping the mother birth a child.  For me, it's in walking with others in their wrestlings and darkness.  For you, well you fill in the blank. 

Let's take a look at the butterfly.  What would you like to do if you gave witness to the emerging of the butterfly?  It's wrestling to come out of the cocoon and develop wings to fly, is so vital for it's ability to live and fly.  If you step in to help the butterfly, it hurts it.  The wrestling builds the strength of the butterfly's wings so it can fly.  If you help it, you stunt its growth and actually cripple it.  They release a chemical as they come out of their chrysalis that strengthens their wings.  The movement of the wrestling pushes and pulses this chemical through their wings, giving them the strength they need to fly.

Okay.  So, I will do my best to let you wrestle, just do it with the pulse of God's truths coursing through your heart and mind.  That is what will give you strength to fly.

In all honesty, I get it.  I have experienced the darkness of wondering what my purpose is, of knowing pain in all its forms, and walking through the darkness of mental unhealth to where my fight to live was little to none.  In my valley of darkness and yes, the shadow of death, God intervened and guided me through His Holy Spirit and I reached for Him in desperation.  I reached for Him through choosing to believe His truths above and over the paradigm that was coursing through my heart and mind.  In the aloneness of my valley, I found Jesus, the Saviour, in ways I wouldn't have if people had stepped in.  Now I am not advocating not caring for people in their pain.  What I am saying, if you find yourself in a position where you feel forsaken and maybe you are all alone; it is an opportunity for you to reach for Jesus, your Saviour.  He is the only One who can truly give you life and in the wrestling and hardship your wings of faith will strengthen as you choose to believe His words.

Sometimes helping is hurting.

Daily.  Sometimes it was minute by minute and moment by moment, choosing to stay with God and believe Him, even when He seemed distant and in a corner.  I felt alone and uncared for.  

In the wrestling to believe God was with me and near; I faced the very thing I feared - abandonment and being left alone in the hardship and darkness.

But I wasn't.

God's staff and rod were guiding and comforting me.  I can trace it and see it now.

Over 2000 years ago, God intervened.  He split the dark night sky with the glorious light of an angel announcing to the hillside of sheep and shepherds with the news that Jesus came.  A Saviour. Immanuel.

That night broke the silence of 400 years.  400 years of waiting, wondering and doing it over and over.  Will the Messiah come?  Where is He?  This Roman rule is so cruel.  Oh, how long?

The way of Jesus is a mystery.  A king coming as a baby, vulnerable and dependent on someone else.  Arriving in a stable where life was stinky and messy and noisy.  There was a stigma to being a shepherd, lowly.  

But friend, oh how beautiful is this.  Jesus is our Good Shepherd and what better people to announce His arrival than to shepherds.

God's ways are best even though many times I wrestle to understand them.  He is with us.  He intervenes in the darkness, in our darkness.  And though it often doesn't look like we think it should, it is His way to our life, peace, and wings of redemption that we us to fly.  But we must choose Him.

So, in this season where we celebrate and are reminded of His coming as a baby.  Let's not miss Him because it didn't look the way we thought it should, as a King would come.  

You can trust Him.  Your faith is your wings to fly, whether the storm rages or the sun shines.

So, I will pray that you have courage to have faith.  That you will choose to stay with Jesus in your weakness, doubts, fears believing His words of truth that can set you free.  Jesus is still in the business of setting captives free with His amazing manna grace and faithful love that so often happens in the dark of the night. 

John 8:38 - And you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

Good Shepherd.  Immanuel - God with us.  Saviour.  Comforter.  The One who Intervenes.