Some verses in Isaiah 54 and 55 have meant a lot to me during the whole divorce process.\u00c2\u00a0 Particularly Isaiah 54:15 and 17 whenever any mention of the trial came up.<\/p>\n
So, in preparation for going to court, for the last few weeks, I’ve been having my quiet times in Isaiah 54 and 55.\u00c2\u00a0 Today it just so happened that the rather odd verse came up that is right in between those two powerful verses for facing a court case.<\/p>\n
Isaiah 54:16 —<\/p>\n
“See, it is I who created the blacksmith
\nwho fans the coals into flame
\nand forges a weapon fit for its work.
\nAnd it is I who have created the destroyer to work havoc.”<\/p>\n
Today, when I read those words about the destroyer working havoc, all I could think about is Christmas.<\/p>\n
Last night, at Home Fellowship, one of the men mentioned that this week he told his kids,\u00c2\u00a0 “Kids, Christmas is going to break your mother.”\u00c2\u00a0 It became a saying, because we felt like it could apply to all the mothers present!<\/p>\n
This morning I slept super late, and I was very discouraged — I had planned to do so much to prepare for Christmas today!\u00c2\u00a0 I’m working six days in a row next week.\u00c2\u00a0 Now how on earth will I get it all done?<\/p>\n
So I thought about Christmas when I read, “It is I who have created the Destroyer to work havoc.”<\/p>\n
Surely it’s true that God created Christmas.\u00c2\u00a0 But where did the havoc come from?\u00c2\u00a0 Why does Christmas destroy our peace of mind?<\/p>\n
I think it’s American culture that heaps expectations on Christmas, especially on Moms.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re supposed to make everything perfect — gifts for everyone, parties, projects, decorations, baking and cooking, everything has to be just so.\u00c2\u00a0 In Germany, the Germans didn’t seem nearly so over-the-top about Christmas.\u00c2\u00a0 But Americans go overboard with everything.<\/p>\n
Why would God allow all these expectations to grow up around the celebration of the birth of His Son?\u00c2\u00a0 Why would He let Christmas become so full of havoc?<\/p>\n
I got to thinking that maybe we need it to be havoc in order to take a good look at all those expectations.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe it’s God’s grace that the expectations have gotten to be more than any one person could ever possibly meet.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe it forces us to take a look and decide only to do what we can, and what’s meaningful to us.<\/p>\n
After all, who will be happy if we really do get everything absolutely perfect?\u00c2\u00a0 Will our kids really care?\u00c2\u00a0 Do our friends and family want us to go into debt?\u00c2\u00a0 Do they care if maybe our gifts are a few days late?\u00c2\u00a0 If our decorating causes more stress than smiles, is it really worth it?<\/p>\n
Anyway, thinking about Christmas as a Destroyer working Havoc this morning made me smile.\u00c2\u00a0 It helped me take it all less seriously and lighten up.\u00c2\u00a0 I did what I could, and the rest will have to wait.\u00c2\u00a0 And if stress drives out joy, it’s just not worth it.<\/p>\n
I don’t want to think of Christmas as Havoc.\u00c2\u00a0 I want to think of it as Joy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some verses in Isaiah 54 and 55 have meant a lot to me during the whole divorce process.\u00c2\u00a0 Particularly Isaiah 54:15 and 17 whenever any mention of the trial came up. So, in preparation for going to court, for the last few weeks, I’ve been having my quiet times in Isaiah 54 and 55.\u00c2\u00a0 Today […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotional-thoughts","category-joy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14136,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330\/revisions\/14136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}