Christmas Crowds

  • Thursday, December 9, 2010
  • by Linda Rempel

    I HATE CROWDS... am I the only one?

    I DO NOT go to Black Friday... I could never stand in line that long and I could for sure never ever try to get something from a bunch of screaming fighting women...
    Ask Debi about this for details... (she on the other hand will )

    I don't wait in lines at restaurants so Tom and I go out on Monday...or if it is a Friday we have to go by six and get done ... Have you seen the lines at Lazlos or the Char Grill after six thirty??? And now what? They are opening an Egg and I in Clocktower... My family is flipping out and I said to Deborah... DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW LONG THE LINES WILL BE ON SUNDAY NOON????

    NOOOOOO...

    I must confess I am the person who DOES NOT want to slide in for late comers at church... really? I got my seat at 7:30... so I could sit on the end and now... they have one service and Steve sits on the end with Amy and I have been shoved to the middle...and there is no seat on either side of me...

    Basketball and Volleyball games... I like reserved seats... I worry that there won't be a seat or what if I go up and ask if these seats are saved and they say yes and I have to go all the way back down...So I stay home... Or how will we ever get out of the parking lot with all those cars?

    And picking up kids at school? When I pick up Debi at East High School on Tuesday you cannot believe the lines and if I don't go early I drive around the school literally ten times before she comes out...So I go at one thirty for a 2:10 pickup so I can be first in line... I LOVE THAT... and then Cavett??? The pickup lane is so long for a 2:53 pickup so I leave my house at two and guess what??? Yup first in line and I read or do word searches ... and I suspect I am not the only one because there is the same car across the crosswalk in that "first place".

    So I have been contemplating this "crowd phobia" and let's face it we all have some kind of issue...If you don't well please stay away from the rest of us because you might "catch one from us" and being perfect is exhausting anyway....

    Christmas is "crowd o mania" everywhere people running around getting wrap.. getting a present... or frantically searching the internet at home for one... only to find it snatched from your shopping cart because you waited too long to push ORDER....

    Ironically Jesus started His life here on the earth and spent most of it in crowds of people ... so much so that He would have to get in a boat and row to the other side of the lake to rest and get away...

    Consider that all the rooms in the city of Bethlehem were taken and there were so many people that Mary and Joseph had to go to the stable... to sleep and then Mary gave birth to Jesus among the animals...in the hay...

    When the shepherds were told of the Saviors birth they were in the fields "keeping watch over their sheep" AND SUDDENLY THERE APPEARED WITH THE ANGEL A MULTITUDE OF THE HEAVENLY HOST PRAISING GOD, AND SAYING ...GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST AND PEACE AMONG MEN WITH WHOM HE IS PLEASED...

    And when He was 12 he was in Jerusalem (Luke 2) and his parents assumed he was "in the crowd" going home and found he was missing and it took them three days to find him because of the crowds...

    Everywhere Jesus went (read the gospels) He was followed and pressed upon by crowds of people

    Consider the woman with the issue of blood that crowded in to touch the hem of his garment.

    What about the crowds on the shores of Galilee where Jesus had to get in a boat and row to the other side to be alone and pray.

    What about the crowd in Mark 2 where he was teaching and they lowered the man through the roof to see Jesus to heal him because they could not get near the door...

    And Zaccheus??? ... So many people He could not see ..Zacheus He climbed up in the sycamore tree (I hate sycamore trees ... I have one.. nasty... drops everything .. but great branches)the Savior for to see.... lalalala

    And what about Luke 5 where Jesus was eating with a crowd of sinners and tax-gathers... not nice people...

    And then the angry mobs who cried.. CRUCIFY HIM CRUCIFY HIM...

    Ironically no crowds were left to bury him.. and no crowds were there to see the empty tomb but that is probably a different subject... I digress....

    I was thinking about all this this morning and wondering whether I can ever change and get in there with the crowd and just do what needs to be done.... and still be comfortable...and NO I AM NOT AGORAPHOBIC... so there... but have you ever tried to
    get across the auditorium in the back after church... or out into the aisle to leave... AHHHHHH you could be trampled... :-)

    And then I thought ... AHHH YESSSS I think I will have this problem solved eventually....

    Revelation 7:9-17 says AFTER THESE THINGS I LOOKED, AND BEHOLD, A GREAT MULTITUDE, WHICH NO ONE COULD COUNT, FROM EVERY NATION AND ALL TRIBES AND PEOPLES AND TONGUES STANDING BEFORE THE THRONE AND BEFORE THE LAMB, CLOTHED IN WHITE ROBES,AND PALM BRANCHES WERE IN THEIR HANDS;AND THEY WERE CRYING OUT SALVATION TO OUR GOD WHO SITS ON THE THRONE AND TO THE LAMB.....AMEN, BLESSING AND GLORY AND WISDOM AND THANKSGIVING AND HONOR AND POWER AND MIGHT, BE TO OUR GOD FOREVER AND EVER. "AMEN (hmmmm... sounds like it might make a great song... :-) )

    Revelation 19:1 -AFTER THESE THINGS I HEARD AS IT WERE A LOUD VOICE OF A GREAT
    MULTITUDE IN HEAVEN, SAYING HALLELUJAH!!!!! SALVATION AND GLORY AND POWER BELONG TO OUR GOD......

    According to Revelation 20 every person who has every lived or died will be standing before the throne of God either in judgment because they rejected His free gift... or covered by the blood of the precious Son of God... who died alone.... feeling forsaken even by God the Father...

    In that day believe you me... I will be in the crowd with I pray my entire family and many many of you falling before the throne of God saying ...WORTHY IS THE LAMB WHO WAS SLAIN TO RECEIVE... BLESSING AND HONOR AND GLORY AND POWER...

    and so until that day ... I will just keep working on it...

    Revelation 22:20

    YES, I AM COMING QUICKLY

    AMEN.

    COME LORD JESUS....

    Merry Christmas...

    3 comments:

    Anonymous said...

    This was my best Christmas present...Thank you Linda.

    Steph said...

    Great perspective and hope of what is to come!!

    Lynn Wilson said...

    Wow, how have I missed your blog? I enjoyed reading it and I just want to say: COME LORD JESUS!!!!

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