A Night To Remember.
That was the theme of our huge event for women last night at Crossroads Community Church. It was a dinner/boutique/craft night. And it WAS a night to remember.
Years past have brought a crowd of around 150 women. With our new building, we anticipated an increase this year. Registration listed over 300 women. But when it was all said and done, 420 women, came through those doors and spent the evening with us! Amazing!
Dinner was catered in. Tables were elegantly decorated. Christmas music was playing. Vendors (women representing their own businesses) had tables set up to share their goods and creations. Stations were set up to make Christmas crafts and decor.
I had the opportunity, along with two other female authors, to sign and sell my books. Once again, the one-on-one connections were the highlight and wonderful conversations came out of each new encounter.
My friend, Dawn, gave a great talk at one point of the evening. Along the theme of A Night To Remember, she talked about the night Jesus was born. The significance of the Star and how long the wise men followed it (God’s beckoning to them) to find Jesus. It’s been said that it took them months to get to Jesus. They left everything – their homes, their schedules, their livelihood – to search for and worship this new child King.
Warning: And now I digress…I did a little more studying about these “wise men”. They were actually astrologers – scientists who studied stars and their formations and significance. They travelled from Persia. Interesting because the Old Testament prophet Daniel was, it’s been told, an official of the Persian government. He began the order of the Magi (or wise men, scholars of the stars) and asked them to watch for the Messiah through the generations.
Persia of that day is Iran of today. ( An interesting irony that these scholars from Iran were going to worship the King of the Jews, given the relationship between Iran and Israel today)… Their trek would have been right around 1,000 miles with their animals and supplies in tow. Not an easy task to say the least. And all they were going to do was to worship. Not to ask for anything from this infant king, but just to worship this child as the King that had been prophesied by Daniel, their ancient predecessor.
When they stopped to talk to the current King, King Herod, and ask him where Jesus was, He had no idea what they were talking about and was upset at the prospect of being replaced. Here are these men who have been looking for this fulfillment of prophecy all their lives, have traveled a thousand miles to find this child and the response of the King is not joy in the coming of his Messiah, but fear and jealousy. That fear lead to him sending out orders to kill all of the babies two and under in Bethlehem. Somehow he thought he could outwit the prophecy. But it wasn’t the Messiah’s time to die yet. There was much for this God/child to accomplish before His time on earth was done.
Fascinating to me. Those who wanted to find Him, did. Those who wanted to stop Him, couldn’t. The same is true today. When we seek Him to worship Him, we find Him. If we try to stop or redirect His plan, we will fail. His ways WILL be accomplished. If we trust the King, the true King, that information should thrill us, just as it did the Magi. It leaves us confident that God will prevail no matter what the world around us looks like or the direction that it looks like it’s heading.
Such a great message that doesn’t fade with time and is just as true today as it was that first Christmas…on that Night To Remember…
Matthew 2:9-11 – They went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Proverbs 19:21 – Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.
Jeremiah 29:13 – You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
