Happy Sabbath Downey church family.

Alright, so this week as we were preparing for all of our holiday festivities, we pulled out like seven boxes from our storage with that were labeled Christmas stuff. And we just had tons of items that we needed to put up; wreaths, ornaments, Garlands, inflatables, just lots and lots of things that goes along with this holiday season. And we dug for a while through all the boxes, and we could not find our Christmas tree lights, and we only found one spool, and we need three spools to be able to completely fill up our Christmas tree, the boys were pretty bummed to find out that we weren’t going to be able to, to put our lights up on our tree and to decorate our tree. And they’d already brought their little step stools from the restroom, and they were ready to put ornaments up.

So we had to have a quick change of plans. Dad, and I decided it’s okay, if we decorate a tree, and we just don’t put Christmas lights on it for now. So the kids can feel that they’re part of the decorating. And we were able to do that. And they were very excited to be able to decorate their Christmas tree and to cut the the twine off of the tree. And just to see that the tree become full again, that was really exciting for them.

So during this time, there’s just so many things that we have to do. There’s cleaning, there’s cooking, there’s baking, there’s decorating, there’s buying gifts and wrapping, and just so many never ending seemingly never ending activities that we have to do to prepare for our, for Christmas and forgive some for spending time with family. And during these times, we’re going to have to make lots of changes to what our plans are. And our plans may not turn out the way that we kind of expected them to.

I was reminded of the Bible story where Mary is visited by an angel. So before the angel comes to her, we know that she’s already engaged to be married to Joseph. And I’m sure that they probably spent lots of time talking about what their family would be like how many kids they’d have, maybe the names of kids, what kinds of things activities they would do with their kids, what they would hope that their kids would become when once they were older, I’m sure they’ve had lots and lots of talks about what they wanted and their wedding and what they wanted that to look like. And then an angel came and appeared to Mary and Mary had no idea that an angel would come by and visit her and just completely changed her plans. But I’m so grateful that Mary was open to the message that this angel had, and he shared, you’re going to be having a baby, you’re going to have baby Jesus is going to be the Son of God. And he’s gonna rule forever. And it just it must have been an immense, an immense privilege and an events job, and also an immense blessing for her.

And sometimes changes of plans happen. And it can feel like oh, no, another thing went wrong. But sometimes we don’t realize that God may just be changing our plan because he has a better plan for us. God knows our purpose. And I’m so grateful that Mary accepted to have big Jesus, and that she was willing to go through with it, because his life mission was to give our salvation. And that’s just the very best Christmas gift that anyone could ever ask for an eternity with their loving father. And I hope that during this very stressful time, when there’s lots and lots of things to do that you just take some time and you pause and you reflect on what is your life purpose. Why do you think God has you here? And are you actively working on meeting your life’s purpose. So just wanted to leave you with that thought. And I hope and pray for you that during this time of just scurry here, scurry there and finish this and finish that as quickly as you can that you take some time to show your fruits of the Spirit it to others while you’re shopping while you’re driving and that you’re showing peace and love and kindness and goodness and gentleness to others, and that they can see God’s light shining through you.

Alright, let’s close our eyes for a quick prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we love you and we thank you so much for sending your son to come live on this earth, so that he could fulfill his plan, which was to die for us and to give us eternity with You, Lord, we love you and we praise you and we look forward to spending more time with you every day. Please be with us. Please best bless these children and their families. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.