When One Meets The One By Ed McDowell

Creating Places for One to Meet The One

We do Christmas with one big goal in mind. We are in the 28th season of The Lights of Christmas, when we host 70,000-100,00 people annually!

The big goal is to take the story of “The One” and share it with our region of the world from Black Friday – the new year.  We long to connect people with the hope found in the birth of Jesus Christ.

As you might imagine, throwing a month-long celebration requires thousands of details, designs, decorations, and coordination. An amazing team works on it year-round.

How It Happens

Just before the opening day of this year, Natasha, a ministry colleague, shared this story of “When One Meets the One”:

“I was just getting off work when I met a delivery driver. As he got out of his vehicle, he mentioned how it was his first time delivering here, and he got lost trying to find the delivery location and, in his words, ended up in front of the “God scene.” 

He broke down and said God brought him here to see the Nativity. I listened as he shared how arduous his journey had been. 

He mentioned it being his first delivery of the day, and he knew God was with him and heard him because he was having a rough day and needed to know he wasn’t alone. 

We talked some more as we packed boxes, reflecting on how God shows up in our lives. We prayed, and he went on his way.”

It’s Time to Pay Attention 

This Christmas season, we may be attentive and responsive to those moments in people’s lives when one is meeting the one. 

 “All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).“

Isaiah 7:14 NLT

“She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger because there was no lodging available for them. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!“

Luke 2:7,11 NLT

A Prayer for Christmas

Dear Jesus,

Please bring us to the nativity to celebrate your miraculous coming to save us.

Just as the delivery driver was managing a load of packages, we were dealing with a load of life. Our need for you is profound.

Thank you for inviting us to come close and be with you.

Please help us be attentive to others who meet the one before you when they come before you.

May we take time, as Natasha did, to stop, listen, and pray with all who draw near to you this Christmas.

In Your name, Jesus, we pray.

Merry Christmas, and Amen.

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Ed McDowell is the CEO of Warm Beach Camp Ministries. He also coaches and consults in board leadership and development to bring fresh perspectives to perplexing situations. Ed authorizes a devotional series titled A Well-Planted Faith in an Uprooted Culture. His writing and speaking aim to challenge people to have God’s Word inform how they live. Ed and his wife, Bev, live on Camano Island, Washington, where they live out their mission statement: “To give our lives away for the cause of Jesus Christ to as many people as possible.”

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