It’s that time of year –CHRISTMAS! It’s weird to think that
one year has passed since the start of my blog. Looking back over the past
year, it’s as if I can see how one thing led to another, stretching me in my
faith and leading me towards Shiloh’s Mount. I caught a glimpse as never before
about what it means to take leaps of faith; to truly only lean on the Savior;
and to trust Him to fulfill what He has promised towards you.
I read a few days ago Luke 5:1-11, and while I cannot
possibly compare my journey to those of the disciples’, I did recognize a
pattern in their life that occurred at least a couple times in my past year.
Like reading the steps to following a pattern to make a quilt square, I saw it
all come together. In the Scripture passage, Jesus enters a ship and asks Simon,
a fisherman on it, to throw the nets into the water again. Simon tells Jesus
that there is nothing to be caught BUT that he will proceed anyways. We see
here the first step: simple obedience
when it does not make any sense.
The disciples actually catch so much fish that their net breaks
and they need help from other fisherman in order to collect the fish! Simon
Peter is astonished and humbled. I can definitely relate to this next step: God
works and I am humbled. This has happened so much this past year: countless
times I weakly followed the Lord, with so little confidence in who He is…only
to be blown away by His faithfulness and His provision.
What’s amazing is the third step: Jesus looked past the
sinful minds of His future disciples and stated FEAR NOT, calling them to become
fishers of men. God looks past all of our sin, failures, abilities/inabilities,
and insecurities and gives us a calling, something to do, to obey. And just as
the fisherman responded, so should we: they finished up their current job, left
everything behind, and embraced their calling: following Him. What is the last
step in this quilt block? Usually finishing up our current job (unless sinful),
leaving everything behind, embracing our calling, and following Him.
This is what Christmas is really about: casting aside our
fears of years past and unwrapping the gift of hope that comes through
following Christ alone…because that little baby we so easily sing about this
time of year is the Son of God, long-expected Messiah, and the only Savior. So
let the weary world rejoice!
