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In more than three decades of my Christian life, I have been blest by 2 types of Daily devos'
(matter not exceeding 500 words) in universal Christian literature. Not only those Devos'
which have a different theme everyday but also the ones which revolve around a certain
theme over a period of time, say a fortnight, have richly edified me. In fact, both
styles have their own inherent advantages. If the former style caters to the varying
spiritual needs of a christian from day-to-day, the latter aims 'to ground'
a child of God in a certain subject in order he derives the full benefits of the
deep insightful study of a certain topic, spread over a fixed span of time.
In my Daily devo page, I have consciously tried to go in for 'a blend of both the
styles' whereby within a constant theme, I would be aiming to focus on different
facets of it which admittedly is a closer imitation of the 'Constant theme' style
than the 'Varying topics' one.
As the month of December coincides with the Christmas season, in this month I intend to
dwell exclusively on all the topics revolving around Christmas using the visit of the
Wise man described in Matthew 2 as the base.
Let me wish you a happy and an edifying read… oh yes-MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF US!
Suresh Manoharan
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December 29th
A safe touchdown…
And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route –
Matt 2:12
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Herod had of course asked the Wise men to
go to Bethlehem and find out the whereabouts of the Christ child and report to
him the exact location of his stay so that he could go later and ‘worship’ the
young Messiah (verse 8) himself. But we all know that his ‘secret’ plans had
nothing to do with ‘worship’ and everything to do with ‘murder’.
Once Herod realized that the Wise men had outwitted him by going off in a different route (on God’s instruction, of
course) without touching Jerusalem, he ranted and raved in anger
(Matt 2:16)
and would have doubtless sent his soldiers at least till the borders of the
land of Israel to capture them. Going as they were slowly in their camels that
the Wise men escaped King Herod’s clutches’ and reached home safely bears
testimony to God’s providential care. Just imagine, dear friends, these
colorful Wise men with their entourage and all, going slowly in their camels in
normal circumstances’ would have been ‘sitting ducks’ to Herod’s soldiers but
for God’s protection! God who can give sight to the blind, can also blind the
sighted…temporarily! Ask Herod’s soldiers, from whose searching eyes, the good
Lord shielded the obedient oriental astrologers!
Should we not praise God as much for the end of their journey, as much we praise Him for his care and protection during
the beginning and middle phase of their journey?
How true the saying that ‘God does not promise a safe passage but He always guarantees a safe landing’!
Prayer:
Father in heaven, how comforting it is to know that we- the unworthy
sinners’- are safe in Your hands from all kinds of dangers…some seen and
some unforeseen. We praise thee in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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