Today’s scripture:

Zephaniah 3:14-18
Sing aloud, O daughter Zion;
shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
O daughter Jerusalem!
The Lord has taken away the judgements against you,
he has turned away your enemies.
The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst;
you shall fear disaster no more.
On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:
Do not fear, O Zion;
do not let your hands grow weak.
The Lord, your God, is in your midst,
a warrior who gives victory;
he will rejoice over you with gladness,
he will renew you in his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing
  as on a day of festival.
I will remove disaster from you,
   so that you will not bear reproach for it.

Ok, all, its 3 days before Christmas Eve.  This are starting to really heat up as far as Christmas prep.  Many of us in these last few days will make the rush to this store or that to make sure we have everything we need.  This includes last minute gifts as well as baking supplies.  I know for me I have one or two more gifts and knowing myself I start to get on this slide of “well, I got that person that one thing I should get something else for the other person….”  In addition, I get antsy for sugar cookies to decorate.  I am also realizing that I have movies to watch…I still haven’t watched Christmas Vacation yet even!  I did, thankfully, watch Charlie Brown Christmas the other night finally.

At this point in the week, while kids are home and preparations are going full speed ahead, its easy to get a little carried away.  We start to sound a little chaotic like this song suggests…we get all mixed up like these guys….

The thing though that I love about this song/video is that although it seems chaotic in the middle of it, things turn out ok first of all.  Secondly, along the way its pretty funny and pretty joyful.  And it is still in celebration of the season.  So perhaps that can be a take away this morning.  Even in the middle of the last minute chaos, what are ways that you can celebrate within that chaos and still enjoy the season?  I know for me when I get into that spiral of thinking, “Gotta do this to do that….” etc perhaps if I take a moment to realize how much fun I am having, I can stop that spiral.

This is what Zephaniah is talking about.  The most important part to Zephaniah’s poem is that God is in our midst already.  While we wait for God to appear, God is already with us and celebrating right along.  When it seems like we just can’t get to Christmas day, we get to remember that God is in the chaos with us and it will probably all turn out just fine.  My colleague preached on Sunday that when we are hitting our lowest points, somehow God meets us there.  I would say that is also the case when our mind starts racing and things that give us joy turn into tasks to check off the list.  God will meet us right there.

So far this season, when things are a bit crazy, that is where I have seen the gifts of God the most.  While Colin and I have worked on a super secret awesome project, I have seen God the most.  And when I was having a rough day and Colin, my youngest brother, just kept saying, “its ok Court.  It will all be fine and you will be ok.” That is the moment that God showed up….both include Colin…hmmmmm….:)