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“Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
Luke 19:38 (ESV)

I sat in the church parking lot, praying for the courage to enter. The church was the same but everything in my life except God had changed. My beloved was with Christ. I had cried driving alone to the church for Sunday services, knowing I would enter and sit alone. Could I do it? Christ was with me and every step would be taken in and by His grace. God had taken my husband and me through his illness and would be equally faithful to take me through the world of change my beloved’s death had produced.

I’d taken a short break from attending worship services because of my profusion of tears. I now faced the church again with resolve that if I cried, I cried. So be it. I knew I needed to get back to worship with other believers. Worship seemed at odds with grief, but our God is worthy independent of life circumstances. Christ made this astonishing statement to the Pharisees that if the praising crowd was silent, the very stones would cry out. – Luke 19:40. What a powerful point! I have noticed how worship opens my heart and God brings things to the surface and meets me. Joy in sorrow can coexist because we have a precious hope in the King of King’s birth we celebrate this Christmas. God deserves our praise and worship even as we grieve. Just begin where you are, no guilt, no quotas, just an expression from the heart.

As we think about it, this Christmas we can worship because our lives hinge on Jesus! Our eternity was born in Him! Just as He was swaddled and held in the loving arms of Mary and Joseph, we too are swaddled in the loving Spiritual arms of our Father in heaven.

“For in Him we live and move and have our being.”
Acts 17:28 (NIV)

It is amazing to think that the author of life left majesty to be born a baby boy– to live, grow, and walk among us. Worship heralded the birth of the innocent child of promise, our Emmanuel. He truly is worthy of all honor and glory. Let us come and worship before the Lord of Lords now!

Gracious and merciful God, Lover of our souls and Shepherd of our lives, I love and praise You! Heaven and earth are Your handiwork! Your great and creations are intricate, beautiful and grand, delicate and sweet. I marvel that You had ten fingers and ten toes and grew up knowing the human experience as Love incarnate. You are my sufficiency today, tomorrow and forever. Lives changed with the birth we celebrate this Christmas… the beautiful, immensely precious babe in the manger–our eternal hope there born. In Jesus Name, all praise and amen.