UPSIDE-DOWN

I wouldn't recommend this as the way to "do" December. Our church staff has been living in an "upside-down" world as we move from the Lincoln Street offices back into the church building.

We're living out of boxes. We're trying to do normal while much is abnormal. The phones work, the phones don't work. We have internet access, we don't have internet access. Office floors are covered with boxes we step around as we try to find the book or meeting agenda we just had in our hands a minute ago.

And not only are things in a mess, all moved around, but we are waiting...and we don't know when the blinds will get hung or the desk will arrive. It sort of feels like we're trying move ahead at the same time we're waiting. Things keep shifting.

I wouldn't recommend this as the way to "do" Christmas, but perhaps it helps put us in touch with the world Mary and Joseph lived in as they prepared to travel south from Nazareth to the Judean town of Bethlehem. Bethlehem, by the way, as known as the "City of Bread." It was also known as an area where sheep, which would be sacrificed in worship at the Jerusalem Temple, were raised. They were then led to the city.

Perhaps your world, today, feels upside-down. Things may be changing in a relationship, at work, or in your family. Things you counted on before suddenly seem to be shifting. You are trying to do life while waiting for the new normal to happen.

God still comes. Bringing God's love and truth and peace and courage into our lives. Even when we are living -figuratively or literally- out of boxes.

This child, born in the City of Bread, where sheep were raised for the Temple, will one day announce, "I am the bread of life." He will also say, "I am the good shepherd."

"All went to their own towns to be registered," Luke 1:3 (New Revised Standard) says. "Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David."

The Savior comes. To a world that often seems upside-down.

In Christ and for Christ,

Mark Fenstermacher