“Business! Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business: charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business.”
~ the Ghost of Jacob Marley, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Stop for a Moment . . .
Buy gifts
Pick out tree
Decorate house
Plan party
Mail cards
Planning and shopping and baking and traveling . . . who has time for anything else? My December is packed! How about yours?
But what if, in the midst of all our busyness, among the wrapping and bows, the cookie platters and Christmas postage, the twinkling lights and fragrant wreaths, there is a higher calling during this season?
On that first Christmas, the world was busy in its routine. The shepherds were performing the same watchful job they’d done for weeks, day in and day out. The inn was filled with travelers, the owners trying to keep the excessive census crowd under control. Mary and Joseph were ending an exhausting journey, joining with other Roman citizens in the census count. Who needed one more thing?
And then . . . the extraordinary happened.
Mary and Joseph had to find shelter, a place where their sweet baby and the Savior of the World, could be born. A simple stable.
The shepherds, working in the fields, were startled out of drowsiness, then terrified by celestial beings bearing an earth-shaking message. They fell to their knees.
The wise men, studying thousands of years of prophecy saw a star, began planning a pilgrimage. They departed.
Busyness surrendered to the extraordinary.
Jesus came because mankind was His business. He was about the business of love and charity, mercy and forbearance – not a to-do list.
Still today He summons us . . .
Stop.
Take in the extraordinary.
Respond in love and obedience.
Be about the business of our Lord.
The Savior of the World comes!
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. ~ Luke 2:11
A very Merry Christmas to you all!!!
~Steven and Natalie
The Arctic Travelogue 