While people are still scrambling to get kids settled into the routine of school, and fall sports and all the rush that comes with this time of year, bits and pieces of Christmas began to come together at Crossroads this week.
Some bits were a result of generous volunteers working to cut all the pieces and parts out ahead of time so that individual hand-made gift tags can go on each gift given out at our Adopt A Child event this year. People gathered in Town Square early this week to assemble 250 of the needed 1,000 gift cards. The next opportunity to help us prepare for Christmas will be, October 12th when we once again gather to try to finish the tags. 
My most personal bits were the pieces of the Crossroads Christmas services. For a long time I've been focused on one idea for our services that just was not coming together and I ended up staring at a blank screen for long periods of time, despite prayer and preparation. I even spent countless time searching for a DVD I couldn't find, only to find it exactly where it should have been...sigh.
I had the pieces and parts saved in folders, segments I had researched and considered for a very long time. But, when it came time to create the skeleton of the service to be handed off to the rest of the creatives to join me in completing - it just wasn't cohesive. And so one can assume - not God's will.
I asked my daughter to let me bounce some of the main pieces and ideas off of her and she immediately could see the value in the main ones, but helped bring perspective and order to the remaining pieces and parts. And the next day we got the biggest assurance we could possibly have received.
My plan was to present Christmas to the creative team and then talk to Pastor Dave, upon his request. But instead, we asked him if we could have a few minutes of his time and then we knew for sure it was right. As we began to show him some pieces and read him some of the content - he walked to his computer to show us where God had directed him the night before. To a passage in Micah that used several of the very words we read to him in our concept.... we all just looked at each other in disbelief!
As I left that room, I thanked God for caring enough about our little plans to give His confirmation in such an obvious way, and so the pieces began to actually fit together and fall into place. We have a long way to go, but, will proceed with confidence that we will once again get to tell His story to all that gather at Crossroads and will trust Him to change lives for eternity!
What a week it was - Christmas, here we come!
