“Get the bubble wrap Mildred. We gotta protect the kids.” Do you really do that? So many folks are running around trying to make it perfect that they are missing the point of life. To live it.

My dream had me walking up to someone preparing to blow a hall in a wall. It was almost as if the wall was like that that went around a prison. I could not stop it and when I awoke, I realized I was not to stop it. It was important to setting the captives free!

While I spoke to others about it, it was clear they wanted to “do something” but did not see what to do.

Then I saw my friend Randall’s post. “How many things happen in our lives that were not at all on our radar? Allen Saunders put it this way “life is what happens while we’re making other plans.” Take your plans add God’s providence and somewhere in there you find the real plan. Mary gives a whole new meaning to this. Have a very Mary Christmas.”

Too frequently in the church we are spending so much time to trying to protect, cushion and bubble wrap that we forget what we are called to. (The other day my friend Mark penned an article on reaching the lost. A lot of it is because we have seen the value of Jesus in what we do in our fellowship.)

We can not protect people from EVERYTHING! And frankly it is not our job. With children we are to keep them healthy. (But if they want to eat dirt, I am prone to let them. And if you do studies, you will find that a lot of the things we are encountering health wise is from “bubble wrapping children. I am also the “anti” anti-bacterial soap guy…)

One of our greatest jobs is to teach people to seek out God and learn to make wise choices. Hearing God and then trusting God are hallmarks of our faith as believers. To say “I only do what I see my Father do” implies God is good and to be trusted. It establishes the “how’s” of our belief.

What is God saying?

Bubbles don’t work. At some point they pop. And reality slips in. Too many are unprepared for life. The idea that we can establish a “perfect” life apart from God is perhaps difficult enough, but then to try and establish a magic pill through God even more painful. Magic is not who God is. God is who God is. He has “handed life” over to us. We need to see we have power and authority and establish it. But not to be so crazed that we isolate, hide and refuse to participate. (Have you read about the sexodus amongst young males? What if this is even partially true?)

At no time of the year do we see more pain and desire to “bubble wrap” things than at Christmas. Parents racing out to do crazy purchasing with money they do not have, building up excitement, only to have a child reject the present and the world comes crashing in.

Jesus is not bubble wrap. He is the comforter. The one who stays close. The one who hangs in there with you when no one else might. He is there for the mistakes and the successes. He is there to heal and to make whole. How does He do all that? Sometimes He just uses people.

One year ago today…