Christmas and Providential Timing

Have you had circumstances line up so something important can happen in your life? I have, and occasionally, I can connect the dots and realize that it was not dumb luck, it was providential. Of course, the importance of the event has something to do with how I view it.

Time travel stories are popular in science fiction. If someone were to go back and change something, even a little, then the future would be impacted. We have an interesting analogy with George Washington, Jesus, and time.

Pixabay / Andreas Böhm

As many people know, Washington was important in the history of the formerly United States. But he didn't have to go and be a general in the Revolutionary War. Similarly, God the Son, our Creator, was under no obligation to leave Heaven and come to Earth, be born of a virgin, and be the man named Jesus. God pulled circumstances together as prophesied. An ancestor of George could have been killed centuries before he was born, so Washington would never have been born. God works in many details to make things happen, and sometimes they take a mighty long time.

Wintry-mix weather dominated Christmas night in 1776 as General George Washington and his boat-ferried troops crossed the Delaware River to surprise the British and Hessian mercenary forces encamped at Trenton. It was freezing cold, with “nor’easter” winds blasting the night in what felt like, to one soldier, a “hurricane.” . . . 

But Washington didn’t need to fight this battle or any of the war’s battles. As a plantation owner with lucrative tidewater fisheries, Washington could’ve conveniently stayed home. . . . But Washington cared more for his fellow colonists’ security and liberty, so he sacrificed his convenience to give selfless service.

You can read the whole thing at "December, Winter Weather, and Washington."