The Magic of Christmas / Day 2

The Magic Of Christmas

Day 2 of 25 “Plan B” I love dreaming and I love ideas. Wondering what could be makes my heart beat a little faster. I can sit for hours (or days!) thinking about the best way to accomplish something and what might be “if . . .” When I’m in a season of dreaming big, I often wake up in the middle of the night to put ideas on paper. I get excited for my husband to wake up so I can share my plan with him. (Sometimes I even bug him a little, hoping he will wake up early . . . my poor husband.) But, as much as I love dreaming, I get even more excited watching a vision take shape. A few years ago, I was in charge of a large renovation project. I put together a budget, drew up the blueprints, hired a team, and began to implement the plan. I couldn’t wait! What happened in the following weeks, though, is what happens with many great plans. I discovered it was not foolproof. There were unknown issues to resolve, obstacles to work around, and costs that exceeded the carefully prepared and very tight budget. The plan had to be altered. I needed a Plan B. Generally, I don’t like Plan Bs. Moving to an alternate plan somehow speaks failure to me. It’s admitting I didn’t have it all together from the beginning. It’s a reminder of the unforeseen nature of life. Sometimes, when I’m contemplating the whys of the universe, I wonder about God’s plan. What was his original idea? Did he have a master plan in place that didn’t work out quite right? Did he create a world where humanity could have lived happily ever after in the garden but subsequently messed it up? Was Jesus God’s second choice? Was Jesus Plan B? This season, as my house begins to sparkle with lights and I decorate a batch of perfectly cut-out cookies, I will also celebrate the birth of my Savior. This little baby, born to a virgin in the city of Bethlehem, was God tenderly revealing his perfect master plan. The redemption of humanity was not an afterthought or a remedy for a plan gone wrong. Jesus was always God’s perfect and loving solution. This baby is the lens through which God views me. The baby was never Plan B. Rhonda Hinrichs Guest Services I Peter 1:20 Ephesians 1:4-10 Micah 5:2 I Peter 1:20 NKJV 20 He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you Ephesians 1:4-10 NKJV 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. Micah 5:2 NKJV 2 “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.”