Christmas Countdown 2019….Day 6

It’s Friday! Yay!!!

This walk through Luke is pretty heavy stuff and I promised you some silly mixed in with this series, so I am sharing this picture and telling you the little story behind it. 

Because the Lord has graciously bestowed upon our fashion&shopping-loving Rachel and the tree from which that apple fell (yours truly) this little cutie….

The photo is adorable in and of itself due to the subject matter, if you ask me…but here is the background. 

Her mom had purchased some new things for her and after buckling her in the high chair in preparation for dinner, she grabbed the bag and started pulling things out to show me. 

I had stepped between Rachel and little Miss Thing and as I am oohing and aahing over the purchases….

I hear very clearly from behind me….

I CAN’T SEE!!!!

I laughed and moved out of the way and this is the look she got on her face as mom held up a couple tops, sweaters and a dress. 

As I admired the flow and fabric of this last item, I mentioned how cute it would look with leggings.

With that deep, penetrating look she smiled and nodded her head in agreement.

And when her mom added the magic words…and a pair of boots…the child literally sighed. 

Rumor has it, miles away from us, her dad and Papi heard their credit cards applaud.

<3

And now for today’s Advent thought. 

We are in Luke 6 today and once again…so much rich material to study…but time warrants one mention only today. 

We have already noted several times of Jesus going off to pray by Himself, and He does again in this chapter. 

Luke records in verse 12 that Jesus went out to the mountain to pray and spent all night in prayer to God. 

He was about to appoint the twelve apostles and their names are listed in verses 14-16. The last one named is Judas Iscariot. He is defined by Luke as the one who became a traitor. 

I think of Jesus in prayer all night as He faced going down amongst the disciples who were following Him and planning to elect twelve to a significant status. 

I wonder what He prayed. Was He listening to God about which names…was He praying for the hearts of the others who would not be selected? 

Was God filling Him in on how this was going to play out? 

We do not know. 

What we do know is that the night of this betrayal, He did know who it would be and He must have known for quite a while…but no one else had a clue. 

I heard a wonderful teaching once on how this indicates that Jesus did not treat Judas any differently than He did John or Peter or any of them. 

At the last supper when the subject is brought up, the apostles are aghast wondering who it could be. 

You know God could have raised up any number of ways for the crucifixion to come about, but in His plan it came from one that He selected to walk closely with Him as an apostle. 

And in this I see another way to follow Jesus. 

I see a lesson here…I should pray and I should seek God and I should follow in obedience the things He tells me. 

But when things do not work out smoothly and perfectly in spite of all of the above, it does not mean His plan has failed or I heard wrong. 

Oh, I can hear wrong…and I have…I have put my own desires into His Words and tried to make them happen. 

But His plan never fails and I need to remember that when I have sought Him and moved in obedience and trusted in what He says and there is still an unwanted element of betrayal…He is still at work. 

He knew about it when He set the plan in motion and He will make all things right for the good of all as I continue on …. going off to quiet places to pray and allowing Him to work it out for His glory. 

Be blessed today, even if things have not turned out the way you would have hoped or planned. His ways are higher and better…always <3