48 Degrees

On this, the second weekend in Advent, 2009, the weather in Kansas City finally began to look like Christmas. Unfortunately, so did the weather inside our house. Caroline and I went to see "The Blindside" (which other than having to watch the nasty Lawrence Taylor / Joe Theisman play in slow motion on the bigscreen was a GREAT movie) on Friday night and returned to our house late in the evening. We were fortunate to have my sister and her husband and his brother as guests Friday night, so being the gracious hostess that she is, Caroline went to turn up the thermostat. We could hear the furnace ignite, but instead of hearing the blower kick up - we heard a whirring noise and then nothing. Yup, that's right, on the coldest weekend of the year to date, the blower on our furnace went out. Luckily - it wasn't too cold Friday night in the house because the furnace had been running all day. We called our home warranty company (who we have unfortunately had to lean on heavily in our first 4 months of home ownership) and after a bit of a hassle on the phone - put in a service call to an HVAC company. They agreed to come on Sunday morning at 11. So, Caroline and I braced for a "cold winter's night". Luckily, Caroline's kind parents loanded us a couple space heaters and our kind friends Steve and Maria loaned us an electric blanket. When we woke up on Sunday morning - I think our bedroom was warmer than it usually is! Unfortunately, the thermostat showed 48 degrees in the dining room. Anyway - as I write this Sunday evening - our furnace and the blower are fully functional again - thanks to the nice HVAC technician who had to come all the way from Lexington, MO. He put in a new blower motor that is much quieter than the old one, so double bonus there.

This morning, I heard the first sermon I can remember from the book of Zephaniah. I didn't have any background on that book, but it is only 3 chapters - the first 2 of which pronounce God's judgment on the people of Israel. Then, suddenly in chapter 3, the prophet is speaking of God singing love songs over the same people he was sitting in righteous judgment upon in the first 2 chapters. What happened?

14Shout for joy, O daughter of Zion!
Shout in triumph, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
O daughter of Jerusalem!
15The LORD has taken away His judgments against you,
He has cleared away your enemies
The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst;
You will fear disaster no more.
16In that day it will be said to Jerusalem:
"Do not be afraid, O Zion;
Do not let your hands fall limp.
17"The LORD your God is in your midst,
A victorious warrior
He will exult over you with joy,
He will be quiet in His love,
He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.

The Lord is in your midst - Immanuel - God with us. Advent happened. May God give us the grace to feel the weight of this amazing shift and see Jesus for who he is as the One who both demonstrates and secures the love of God for us.