2011 Christmas Reading
The angels announced His birth
No vacancy. The inn was full. No place inside for these expectant travelers to rest. The only space available was in the stable. It was there that Mary brought forth Jesus. It was there she swaddled him and laid him in a manger.
This however was no ordinary child. This was the only begotten of the Father. The very bread of life had just been born in the house of bread and lay resting in that trough.
The Lord would not be satisfied if an event so precious and wonderful transpired without a proper announcement and celebration. To the shepherds in fields that night the angel of the Lord appeared. That heavenly harbinger sharing with them good tidings of great joy:
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
Although the child the shepherds found may have looked ordinary, he was anything but. The angels had announced the arrival of the Saviour. They proclaimed that the Messiah had been born. This baby was special.
John the Baptist introduced His ministry
"Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." declared John the Baptist as he stood by Jordan. The words of the prophet serve as a prelude to the ministry of the Messiah.
John called him the Lamb. He is the perfect lamb of God: without spot, without blemish. He is our redeemer who accomplished our atonement. He is the daysman that went between us and God, that laid his hand on both.
It was for this cause that the angel of the Lord instructed Joseph, "thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins."
It was this truth that Simeon saw as he held the Christ child and prompted him to say, "For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel."
It all had begun 30 years before. There in that humble town of Bethlehem. There in that lowly stable. There swaddled in a manger the words of Abraham finally were fulfilled. God had provided himself as the lamb.
We proclaim His return
That child of Bethlehem was the one foretold of by the prophet "Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." The meaning of his name did not end with his earthly ministry.
Christ comforted his disciples before his death saying, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." God with us. That where I am, there ye may be also. Emmanuel.
John the revelator recorded "And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God." Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. God with us. Emmanuel.
The angels welcomed his birth. John the Baptist introduced his ministry. We have the privilege of proclaiming his return. After all, it is the defining focus of the christian's life and of this season. Truly, He is Emmanuel.
This was used to weave the songs and scripture together in our Christmas program at New Canaan.
Acronyms and Ubiquitous Language
I enjoyed this post regarding the use of acronyms and Domain-Driven Design. I started to write DDD, but thought it went against the spirit of the post. I recall a statement that Eric Evans made along the lines of "if you can't say something as crisply as you would like, you may need to change the model." I think that was in What I've learned since the book. If I'm wrong, it's a good presentation anyway.
I'm pretty quick to take a descriptive class name and reduce it to it's shortest recognizable form in written form like emails, chat, and story descriptions. Two that comes to mind is that I shorten ContentLicense to CL or Salesforce to SF. Never in the code, but anyone new to that discussion would need a primer of the various meanings of the acronyms and abbreviations.
The Paradox of Wanting
Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Philippians 4:11-13
Poor abused catalogs, by now not one of them isn't dog-eared, marked up, and cut to pieces as with wide eyes we compile our Christmas list. How long is your? We may make a lot of noise about how Christmas is a time of giving and not receiving. The ravished state of the weekend sales ads tells a different story. I've come to realize there is a lot more wanting going on than giving or receiving.
We all have wants: Big, small, silly and serious. We all have felt this disappointment and discouragement of not getting what we want. Read the following sentence very carefully.
What you want may not be what you want.
Have you ever considered the consequences of getting what you want? Or for that matter, the benefits of not getting what you want? The Israelites wanted to be like other nations. they wanted a king. We know that turned out not to be for their good (1 Sam 8:10-20). Paul prayed repeatedly for the thorn in his flesh until God revealed that it was placed there for Paul's spiritual good (2 Cor 12:7-10).
Paul had learned to be content. He learned to trust God. He knew God loved him and was in control of every aspect of life. He rested in that God would strengthen Paul to accomplish the Lord's will. Paul yielded his wants to his heavenly Father. The world may measure Paul's account as ending only with a few books and a cloak (2 Tim 4:13). However, Paul possessed something far greater, He possessed Christ (Gal 2:20).
We sing that Christ is all we need. Is he all you want? Dear friend, truly he is all we have.
Clean Architecture
Uncle Bob reminding us to decouple. I'm reminded of DDD's division of infrastructure, application, and domain. The best line: "Are we really so naive as to think that the best way to write a complex system is to throw a bunch of components into a bag and shake it until it works?"
Grumpy and the Gourd
And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.
Jonah 4:6-7
Jonah has just reluctantly preached to the people of Nineveh. I bet you could still smell the whale on him. He is now gone out of the city and has pitched a tent to prepare for a pity party. God is doing amazing things through Jonah and Jonah sits there sulking with a sour scowl.
Notice that it says that God prepared a gourd. It almost sounds silly right? It's a gourd! How can we get excited about a gourd? Yet, God prepared it. What a comfort to know that God is active in the life of his people, even in the small things. Does it not thrill your soul that the great God of heaven can drop handfuls of purpose for his children?
While we may think the gourd silly, the shade that it provide for Jonah was a source of delight and comfort for him. We can recall times when the Lord blessed us with some seemingly trivial thing that was a spring of joy in our lives. If we are not careful though we, like Jonah, will focus on the gift instead of the giver.
The next day in Jonah's life God is still active and at work, yet the delight has been replaced with despair. When the source of our joy is the blessing then when it's removed, so is our joy. Yet this day started out the same as the day before. God had prepared something for Jonah. This time it was not for his comfort, but for his character. Had Jonah made the giver the source of his joy, he'd still have been rejoicing despite the lost.
Some blessings in our life are temporal. They go as quickly as the come. However, we can have a constant source of joy in the depths of our soul recognizing the important thing is not the blessing, but the blesser. With our focus on our Father, we always have cause to rejoice. Even when it seems the winds of life are contrary, we can also have a strength of resolve, knowing it could just be God preparing something to build our character, rather than to give us comfort.
