Well, it’s the day before Christmas and I’m sitting in my office finishing my study for the week, doing correspondence, trying to keep up with my schedule for the next few weeks. Days like today, being in the office when it is quiet and almost no one is around, are rare! Nice, but rare.

The past week has been quite a roller coaster ride. As is my pattern, planning for the “blizzard of ‘09′” the weekend of our big Christmas program included the normal obsessing about such gut wrenching questions as…How much is it really going to snow? Will we need to cancel the service? How should we adjust? Should we wait and see? Should we make a call quickly? Admittedly, most normal people would not be tortured by such questions, but many of us pastor types are. We know that if we don’t cancel or delay the service the storm will hammer us. If we do act quickly to keep our people off the roads, then it will suddenly stop snowing and become clear and warm. I know I shouldn’t worry about such things, but I do.

As usual, while my worry did serve one noble purpose, fostering fervent prayer, it proved unnecessary…the worry, not the prayer! We made the decision late Saturday morning to delay Sunday’s service by one hour and it promptly stopped snowing in my back yard…oh great. BUT, it did start up again and dumped a boatload of snow. It all worked out. We all dug out. We had a great service and Christmas program. People got safely in and back home. The greatest blessing of the day was a young man that I had the blessed opportunity to share Christ with, a bit over a week earlier, braved the snow and came to church. I had met him through our weekly bible study. We had a sweet time discussing the gospel. His heart was questioning, opening, and searching. Well, Sunday morning he trusted Christ! What a blessing, what an incomparable joy!

So, like many weeks, this week has already had its share of great joys and real heartaches. In all of these He is faithful and sufficient. In all of these He is “Emmanuel”, God with us!

Have a Great Christmas!

In Him,

P. Tim