Our secular culture has no room for angels or heavenly revelation.  People who claim to have spoken to angels are generally considered crazy.  But as Christians we know that God is not some remote, absent collective consciousness, that has little or no influence in our daily lives.  Instead, we know that He is the God of the living; a loving Father Who acts every minute of every day on our behalf.  

Jesus wasn’t born in a golden palace, surrounded by the riches of the Jewish Kingdom.  His mother did not give birth in a featherbed made from the cedars of Lebanon.  The Savior came into this world in the middle of a damp, cool, and rocky cave, being warmed by the breath of the animals that dwelt there.  This seems completely backwards doesn’t it?  Why would the King of Kings, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, God Himself choose to be born in the midst of filth and darkness!? 

…Centuries later, in our little Church in the woods, the banquet once again lies before us! We have an invite to the Kingdom today! It is not some superficial place that we will get to eventually after we pass away…it is here….it is now.  The Gospel today says:  “Come NOW, for all things are ready.” 

In order to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, in order to come into complete communion and union with God, we have to drop all of the baggage in our lives that has been weighing us down.  

For our spiritual ancestors, the power and significance of the true Ark of the Covenant was definitely not a fairytale.  The presence of the Ark had tremendous significance and importance for the nation of Israel, because it represented the physical presence and power of God amongst them.