It's All About Jesus

Life and the summer are speeding on in my little Operation Christmas Child world. We had a very long, hard winter here in Erie. On those cold February days I couldn't wait for summer and planned all the things I would do. Now it's August and I've done very few of those things.

We haven't been to one local fair or festival to get our beloved kettle corn. Presque Isle, our beautiful Lake Erie beaches, are five miles away from my house and I've only been there twice all summer and never managed to see a sunset.

But...I have been blessed with lots of stuffed animal sorting. In the past 16 days alone God has provided over 3,900 stuffed animals! Praise Him! We still are praying for 7,300 or more before our packing party which is now only 23 days away (gulp.)

This is the time when all the questions start rolling in: will we have enough volunteers? How will we set up the line to keep it moving at a steady pace? Will the creation of 'school packs' this year cause the line to move too fast and overload those who are carbonizing the boxes? How do we prepare for that? How will we get 30,000 boxes folded in four days?

Well, there are more questions but you get the idea.

This morning, by God's grace, I read a passage in Isaiah 7:9-14 that really spoke to me.  King Ahaz is in a crisis. Enemies are waging war against Jerusalem and those folks of Judah "shook as trees of the forest shake in the wind."(vs. 2)

So the Lord sent Isaiah to reassure Ahaz that they would not be destroyed and said to him in verse 9 "If you do not believe, you surely shall not last."

Then the Lord asks Ahaz to request a sign--anything from heaven to hell--to reassure him, but Ahaz wisely refuses to test the Lord and says, "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign:  Behold a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel."

In the midst of the crisis Ahaz knew, even centuries before He would be born, that it was ALL ABOUT JESUS.

Compared to Jesus nothing else matters--not even the threat of death at the hands of enemies. And with the promise of Jesus there is victory even when you seem to face imminent defeat.

Thank You, Lord, for Your word to me this morning. Because even though we have a million questions, even though we have no idea how this packing party will all come together, even though we actually fear the long hours of preparation it will take to get set up in just a few days prior to the packing party itself...

even though...we know JESUS is already there bringing us victory. Because, in the beginning and in the end, it's ALL ABOUT JESUS.