{"id":8884,"date":"2024-12-23T16:28:45","date_gmt":"2024-12-23T16:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=8884"},"modified":"2024-12-23T16:30:40","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T16:30:40","slug":"for-thy-pleasure-updated-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=8884","title":{"rendered":"For Thy pleasure [Updated 2024]"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Will you be alone on Christmas Eve? I was in 1978. <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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My parents had moved to Pittsburgh; my sister was in Oregon; and my brother was AWOL as far as the family went. I was a substitute teacher with very little income and couldn’t afford the flight to PA. So this 20-something braved the cold and attended Grace Christian Center’s Christmas Eve service alone. <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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As I joined in the worship, the carols ministered to my quiet melancholy, drawing my attention off of myself and onto the newborn King. Then, a song welled up from the worship team\u2014not a carol\u2014but a simple worship song honoring the God of creation. It went like this:<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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For Thou hast created, hast all things created.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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For Thou hast created all things…<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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And for Thy pleasure they were created.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Thou art worthy O Lord.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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My eyes were closed, and as these words played: “And for Thy pleasure they were created…” I saw something flash across the screen of my consciousness…<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A gentle snow was falling, and I saw a little raccoon waddling down to a very familiar, half-frozen creek\u2014the creek that traversed land that my family once owned and where I used to catch crawdads. As I watched, the raccoon took a sip of water at creek’s edge. <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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It surprised me\u2014it wasn’t a Christmasy-type of “vision” at all. But then I heard the Lord say softly on the inside of me, “This just happened, and I wanted to share it with someone. I knew you’d like it, too.”<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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And ever since then, I’ve known I’m never alone, really. And my friend, neither are you. <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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My prayer for you\u2014no matter what’s going on in your life\u2014is that you will experience Christmas this year with the One who created all things.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0\u2014Dorothy<\/div>\n
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\u00a9 2016; updated 2024, Dorothy Frick<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Will you be alone on Christmas Eve? I was in 1978. \u00a0 My parents had moved to Pittsburgh; my sister was in Oregon; and my brother was AWOL as far as the family went. I was a substitute teacher with very little income and couldn’t afford the flight to PA. So this 20-something braved the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christmas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8884"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8887,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8884\/revisions\/8887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}