I usually put the Christmas decorations away the day after Christmas. I love the beauty of Christmas, but the stuff has been up a whole month. I like to start the New Year with a fresh, clean, uncluttered house. However, this year, here I sit, with the tree still up two days after Christmas. I am getting so lax in my old age.
But I do have another excuse as well. I spent the morning after Christmas on the freezing sidewalk in front of the SE’s busiest abortion center and will do so again today. I did have my new heated jacket, but it is a little too bulky to fit beneath my down jacket as I had planned. It is warm...but only lasts 3 hours on the highest setting. I was out there almost four hours. There are limitations to the heated jacket’s usefulness. I may need a new strategy. I can purchase an extra battery and may have to. This is called MISSION CREEP and there could be no end to where the hunt for perfection will lead.
My new heated gloves showed up yesterday afternoon on my doorstep. So today, I will put on not ONLY the full armor of God for the spiritual battle waged each day at the abortion center, but also the full armor of heated clothing. Not only do I dress myself for all possible scenarios, but I had two pairs of extra mittens in the car which came in handy for the two volunteers who forgot mittens yesterday. There is almost NOTHING I could possibly need that cannot be found stored somewhere in my van.
“Prepared” is my middle name.
I also was prepared with the scripture I wanted to speak to the women. I read a passage in Isaiah during my morning Bible study and felt certain someone needed to hear it. Here it is in case that someone is YOU:
Isaiah 58:3-10 NIV
[3] 'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?' “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. [4] Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. [5] Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? [6] “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? [7] Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter---when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? [8] Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. [9] Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, [10] and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.
[3] 'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?' “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. [4] Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. [5] Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? [6] “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? [7] Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter---when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? [8] Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. [9] Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, [10] and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.
I thought the message was for the abortion minded women, who clearly are turning away from their own flesh and blood. However, perhaps it was not only for them. While on the microphone, the police came as usual to check our sound permit. As I handed him the permit, I asked if he had Christmas off.
“No,” he told me, “I had to work.”
“I'm sorry...was it a light day? Do the criminals take Christmas off?”
“It was busy, but not really with criminals...with domestic cases. You know, the relatives who only see each other once a year...with good reason.”
....To turn away from your own flesh and blood....
God hates this. He hates those who claim to love Him and yet treat those He created in His image as if they have no worth. The criminals take Christmas off, but families are apparently still at each others’ throats.
So I didn’t feel like taking down my Christmas tree. Not yet. I wanted to sit and dwell a little longer on the babe who was born to redeem this wretched world.
Fortunately, one mother at the abortion center decided to turn back to her own flesh and blood and a little baby left that day alive.
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