Moment by Moment…

 

                                                

Our son-in-law Chris recently decided to transform the small room where Shanda, my step-daughter, had stayed during the last months of her illness. It had originally been used as a music room, housing a baby grand piano belonging to her mother’s side of the family.

After the piano had been taken out of storage and moved back to its former place, Chris noticed a paper clip and a piece of paper on the floor. They must have dropped out of the piano during the moving.

The paper was a fortune from a fortune cookie bearing the words: “Heroism is endurance for one moment more.” How unusual! Maybe Shanda had wanted to save it from lunch one day, in between her music lessons, and had placed it on top of the piano. Eventually it fell inside, along with an assortment of other objects accumulated through the years—until that particular moment.

Later, Chris shared how those words described Shanda’s character and strength as she endured a long, arduous ordeal with cancer. She was his hero and inspiration. Ours too!

 Heroes are created by persevering through difficulties. Think about Joseph and Mary traveling from Nazareth to Bethlehem so that Joseph could register for a census decreed by Caesar Augustus. They had no choice. Mary, who was near the end of her pregnancy, still had to make the long journey.

Once in Bethlehem, they faced the prospect of not having any accommodations. No room? But Mary was close to giving birth… Finally, they found shelter in a place where livestock was kept and there, she had the baby Jesus, a manger for his bed. “Immanuel.” “God with us.”

 Did they stay awake all night after a group of shepherds dropped by unannounced to see the newborn baby, maybe wondering who or what might come next? Angels? Roman soldiers? Wild animals? 

It was turning out to be a harrowing experience, one over which they had little or no control. But God was with them, watching over them and over His Son. Sometime later, Joseph found accommodations in Bethlehem where they could care for their newborn baby.

Again, visitors dropped in unannounced during the night—Magi from the east who had followed a star for guidance as they searched for a baby, the King of the Jews. They came to worship him, bearing gifts.

Were Joseph and Mary startled? Overwhelmed? The visit of the Magi was another sign that God was with them. But what next?

            Rather than going to Jerusalem and reporting to Herod the result of their search, the Magi were warned by an angel in a dream to return home by a different route. About the same time, Joseph was also warned in a dream that Herod was going to search for Jesus and that he and Mary needed to flee to Egypt where the baby would be safe.

Homeless again, and this time fleeing in terror.  But God was working out His amazing plan of salvation through His Son, Jesus. No matter how difficult things seemed to be, He guided, protected and provided for them each step along the way.

After King Herod’s death, when it was safe, God directed Joseph and Mary to go back to Nazareth. It was another arduous journey, this time with a toddler. But they went!

From the time of the angel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she was going to have a child and Joseph’s receiving the instruction through a dream not to be afraid to marry her, to their safe arrival back in Nazareth, they never wavered in faith or obedience.

As Jesus grew to manhood, he followed their example of enduring difficulties, of faith and obedience. He persevered until God’s plan of salvation was finally completed, until from the cross he could say “It is finished.”  

This has been a difficult season for Al and me, with the loss of Shanda in November, our Covid sickness before Christmas and all of the emotions accompanying those occurrences. Thanks be to God for giving us the strength to carry on and for helping us persevere in our faith.

May we as followers of Christ never falter or turn back, but remain faithful to him, enduring moment by moment to the very end!

 

“I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:13 NIV

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” 2 Timothy 4:7 NIV (words of the apostle Paul)