“Lord, I know that people’s lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps. Discipline me, Lord, but only in due measure—not in your anger, or you will reduce me to nothing.” Jeremiah 10:23-24

It’s Christmas time! YEAAAAAA! Time to put on the cheer and celebrate the greatest gift ever given to man – God’s plan for salvation through His Son Jesus Christ. In our house, that means dragging out the boxes of decorations to celebrate! It is the reverse of what we did in January of last year when the boxes were carefully packed, labeled and stored. Now we fetch and unpack. One of my jobs is putting up the outside lights! Need I say more???

How is it that Christmas lights that worked perfectly last year… do not work now? They’re not like milk that spoils. I can’t figure how an inanimate object can be created… then just go bad without ever being touched. But SOMETHING certainly wreaked havoc – because half of my lights do not work! I commiserated with a friend who just had the same experience! We agreed… it’s not worth trying to fix them! THAT is a learned lesson in futility! It’s easier to just throw ‘broken’ away and buy new! But what does God do with ‘Broken?’

God has a way with broken, tangled lives? All through the Bible we get a picture of God’s amazing patience and Grace. Each and every one of us has faced times where our faith wavered, our love grew cold, our hearts hurt and our ‘get up and go’ just ‘got up and went!’ What does OUR maker do with us? Does He throw the whole tangled, broken mess of our lives into the trash? I think you already know the answer.

I thank God that God is in the restoration and fixing business! One of the biggest proofs of God’s existence and love comes from the nation of Israel. When He called them, they were few. He made a promise to them and, due to their own stubborn hearts, they broke His! But He continues to work, fix and move… using time and events to restore Israel to Himself. THAT story is a continuing one until the end of this planet. That Israel is a nation again is one of the biggest miracles of the ages… and should be of great encouragement to us.

God loves us all. The price He paid to redeem us is so high, that virtually NO human on earth could ever pay it. But God did! And for those of us who know Him, strain to hear the music He plays in our hearts, listening for His voice to lead us, we follow on by faith… step by step.  We know that ‘He who began a good work in us, WILL complete it.’ SO, fellow shiny one…“Let your light shine!”

I am going to work on doing that today! Because THAT… is MY job! How about YOU?