Over the weekend I was the pondering the Journey Mary and Joseph undertook from Nazareth to Jerusalem. It was a journey of about 80 miles and would have taken about 7 days. It would have been no easy journey for a heavily pregnant woman on the back of a donkey. I can imagine how tired, dirty and weary they would have been when they reached Jerusalem. Then to not be able to find any accommodation except a stable would have been quite dispiriting
In the mad rush to Christmas it is easy to end up being over it before it arrives, and to forget the true reason for the season. Over the coming weeks I will put in some Christmas poems on the blog, but today I want to post a poem based on 2 Corinthians 4 vs 7-9, and remind us that whilst we have our treasure in Earthen Vessels, that God in us can enable us to do all things!
2 Corinthians 4 vs. 7-9 We Have This Treasure in Earthen Vessels
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels
That the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us
At times we struggle with life, with its ups and downs we wrestle
We get wrapped up in the stress of every day life, over it we fuss
In the midst of this we need to turn to Jesus and in him nestle
It’s not for us to do things in our own strength, to God second guess
We need to allow God to shape us, to us be the mortar, him the pestle
Open so God may mold and shape us, our lives be in God and not of us
We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed, we are perplexed
But not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed
For in these things God can build our character, of this I am convinced
That as we open ourselves to him, his Spirit in our lives can be employed
Seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness, of his love he will us remind
For he to us gives good gifts, and a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind.
Mark Maffey, August 2007
(NKJV)