I stood in Bethlehem as soon as and there have been stars unblinking of their courageous hope, proper there over that little city of Bethlehem.
I’d stood there for a very long time, neck craning, proper outdoors the Church of the Nativity, wanting up with a holy creativeness and prayers that deeply know that He’s the realest actuality.
Irrespective of any end result… Hope at all times nonetheless comes
After which I’d lastly turned and bent low to stroll into the Church of the Nativity — as a result of there is no such thing as a discovering Hope till you humble your self to imagine.
Our information stated the door is impossibly low in order that pilgrims couldn’t trip their steeds, their camels, their donkeys, straight into the Church of His Nativity.
I’d stood silently with that for a very long time by that low, carved internal door and one thing settles into me:
Nobody will get to satisfy God except they let go of any laurels they’re driving excessive on or counting on, and the doorway to God is just for many who humbly bow earlier than God because the One who’s over all.
It’s a deep reduction: Any downside shrinks low once we humbly simply exalt Christ on Excessive.
And if you bend low via that door within the Church of the Nativity, and also you come near that place in Bethlehem, kneel down and contact the place the place the Creator of the Cosmos birthed Himself as a creature… the place God got here to this sod? That’s what strikes me:
God is with us.
God let His divinity fill a container of pores and skin and stuffed His lungs with all of the harm of right here and God is right here proper now with us.
We aren’t alone on this mess. We aren’t alone in any hopelessness.
Us on this pale blue dot of a planet within the huge blackness of the cosmos — we’re “the visited planet.” He got here. He sees. He is aware of. We aren’t alone.
Emmanuel comes to provide the present of withness. Withness within the tenderness, withness within the brokenness, withness within the messiness, withness within the aloneness. He is aware of the entire story of each one among our tales, all of the unstated damaged, He is aware of all of it, & He stills whispers: “I’m with you. That’s my identify – Emmanuel, that is who I AM: God with you.”
Nothing is requested or required of you — Emmanuel simply desires to be with you.
While you kneel precisely the place they are saying the Star-Maker first got here and grazed earth — you kinda exhale in awe:
The present you get is the presence of God, Emmanuel, who desires to be in your presence, who desires to be with you, who chooses to be with you, who’s with you proper now, not due to something you do, or something you are able to do, or something you have to do, however just because He chooses to be with you.
Kneeling there in Bethlehem, wrecked by the incomprehensibility of the Maker of the Universe pulling on flimsy flesh to come back be with us, all I can suppose is how the the Holy Different curls His new child fist within the cradle of a barn feed trough — and we’re all saved from our hopelessness as a result of God got here with toddler fists and opened large His hand to take the nail sharp fringe of our sins and take us near Himself, to provide us Himself.
So now we get the withness of God, we get braveness from the center of God with us, we at all times get the tender face of God, it doesn’t matter what we face. You don’t get criticalness, you don’t get harshness, you don’t get resentfulness — you get withness. You might be behind, be imperfect, fall in need of expectations – and that’s at all times nonetheless what you get – you get the withness of God.
Within the midst of all our tender heartache and questions, God gave us greater than explanations –God gave us an precise expertise of Himself, as a result of God is aware of explanations might be chilly & Christ’s arms and coronary heart are heat.
I hint the celebs they’ve engraved proper into the ground of the Church of the Nativity — working my fingertips over these stars repeatedly, and there may be One who got here via all of the cosmic darkish like a star and His mild embraces our personal tender, bruised coronary hearts …
And there could also be loss and there could also be some disappointment and sure, there may be unstated damaged —however there may be at all times, at all times, at all times Hope.
Tales might not have gone as we hoped — however Hope isn’t gone. Hope comes down, and Hope by no means, ever stops coming. Irrespective of any end result… Hope at all times nonetheless comes. He took on pores and skin and comes with lung and heat breath as a result of that is the present all of us want: Hope Himself got here all the way down to be our Hope and resuscitate that hope you may’t afford to let die. Let your damaged coronary heart put together Hope room.
Put together Hope room and put together room for issues to alter and other people to alter, and the hurting to not harm, and the wounders to heal, and the unimaginable to discover a potential means, and let nothing cease you from following the star this Christmas to the place Hope comes all the way down to the darkest, lowest locations.
As a result of Christmas is coming proper now for the place we really feel disappointment and loss and tenderness. Christmas is coming proper now for the disappointment we are able to’t communicate out loud, for the unstated damaged that has cracked a little bit of coronary heart — and all our hopes and fears are held in Him, Emmanuel, the One who’s coming proper now to crush all fears and despair and darkish and is right here, proper now with us.
A coronary heart can maintain burning inside…
And after I’d ascend the again stairs from the basement of the Church of the Nativity with its starry ground…. I stand behind the Church of the Nativity for awhile, wanting up on the lit stained glass telling the story of His start, rising there like a star above the altar. Stand there — ready. Ready for God is aware of what.
Ready for God to come back make His presence recognized, that we are able to really feel His withness, really feel the hope of Him right here.
And that’s the second after I’d heard the slosh of water, heard a spilling of water, up close to the altar.
After which a lady, bent and small, she’s stepped out of the shadows — along with her mop.
I watched as she’d started this gradual choreography of grace throughout the ground — along with her mop.
This expensive girl is mopping up the birthplace of God.
She’s mopping up the mess down right here — a bit like God got here down right here to mop up our mess. Our mess of hopelessness and weariness and and every kind of unstated brokenness.
However I can hear music? Music echoing — ?
The place on this planet is the music coming from? Haunting notes, excessive and wonderful. From the darkish? From behind the altar?
Her shoulders, her shoulders, are shifting with the notes.
That’s the place the music’s coming from:
The music’s coming from her. The music’s coming from inside her.
She turns along with her mop and the entire thing seems like I’ve walked in on the heavenly host welcoming Him, anointing Him and I kneel low — like shepherds who should bow in worship too — and one thing in me brims…. and spills.
O little city of Bethlehem…the hopes and fears of all our years…
And I can really feel the beat and chorus of it now inside me:
We aren’t deserted in all this — we get to let all of it go and abandon ourselves to God.
We get to let go — and be small and let God do all of it, be our all, make a means via all of it.
We get to let go — and let God close to, let God be with us, Hope with us right here.
And right here is that this beautiful girl, along with her bent again and humble mop letting her coronary heart pour out to God, within the place the place God first touched this sod, first let His loud cry mingle with humanity.
And right here I’m, a kneeled mess who can’t cease spilling, my shoulders shifting with the breaking of my coronary heart over the wonder and rightness of her lowly providing, proper the place He Himself got here low and provided Himself.
The lady leans her mop up in opposition to a pew.
She steps in shut towards me.
After which she cups my face in her wrinkled, heat palms.
What on this planet is occurring?
After which she gently kisses my one moist cheek — after which kisses my different moist cheek.
My tears are being kissed by a stranger — an angel? — within the birthplace of God. There’s hope in all our hurts, once we bend low, lean in, turn into like Jesus to one another.
And all I can hear is that this angelic whispering to a heartbroken world: “Don’t be afraid — for you’ve gotten discovered favor with God.”
And favor isn’t discovered merely with God — favor is discovered beside God. Favor is discovered by those that let God keep the closest beside them, proper right here with them.
The lady’s eyes search me and my eyes search hers — and it’s this holy second in Bethlehem, within the Church of the Nativity. This can be a assembly. Our eyes meet and relaxation in one another — with one another. God with us.
And she or he nods and smiles and I attempt to smile courageous via tears.
And I exhale with the grace of all of it:
You don’t should work for the approaching of the Lord—you don’t should work for hope, work for rescue, work for Christmas.
There’s no performing Christmas, producing Christmas, or perfecting Christmas.
There may be solely Christmas discovering us — grace discovering even us. Hope discovering even us, God with us.
He will put together your coronary heart for the approaching of the Lord.
“That is the true preparedness of coronary heart for coming to Christ—the preparedness of coming to Him simply as you might be,” Charles Spurgeon wrote.
Simply as you might be, proper the place you might be, He unfolds Himself in that mess that’s your unimaginable, within the mucked straw you would like was completely different, proper within the stench that doesn’t carry any scent of hope. Rejected on the inn, holy God is available in small to the place you are feeling rejected and a bit hopeless and small and God is with you now.
Wherever you might be any unstated damaged—God at all times desires to be with you. You aren’t ever left alone. The presence of God with us is the present… Love comes down, and it doesn’t matter what, He likes to be with you…
You at all times get your Christmas miracle. You get God with you.
The Girl with the Mop within the Bethlehem Birthplace of God, she stands beside me, touches my streaming tears along with her fingertips, wipes my cheek on this caress of communion and this proper right here is the center of God:
He kisses us with grace and holds us with hope and wraps us with love and we’re soul-safe at all times in Him.
Because the Angel with a Mop in Bethlehem wipes away a little bit of my spilling….. it’s the holy that occurred below that one blazing star in a manger in Bethlehem that wipes away all our tears and fears and all our hopes are assembly within the love of Him proper now.
The celebs over Bethlehem, and all of us, sing clear, and all our hearts hear….even right here and now.
Come proceed the journey from Christmas… and flip & gaze on the One who gave you His entire life, His entire coronary heart ―and also you’ll discover the love you’ve been on the lookout for your entire life, come be Cherished To Life …
And are available discover right here all of your free presents for pre-ordering “Cherished to Life,” together with the Free Audiobook of The Biggest Reward, good on your Christmas week, and free entry to Ann’s 4-part Christmas video sequence, filmed on the farm, unwrapping the marvel of Jesus in The Biggest Reward, how He offers us the present of Himself and a brand new coronary heart…
