Post Advent #26

Post-Advent day number #26

Yes! We have nearly reached the end of another year.  For me, as it was for many of you, this year was filled with remarkable highs that are indelibly etched in my memory.  Moments where I felt I had been sitting with an angel unaware, moments where I could see friends sacrifice deeply for my sake and was overwhelmed by their love.  As with so many of you, there were also moments of pain that have chiseled me, my thoughts, my reactions, into something unfamiliar.  So it is nearly time now to move on, equipped with the past to head into the next year, new months, new weeks, new days, new opportunities.

If we imagine ourselves back to the time Christ was born, He also would be facing a New Year. A long, long, long way away from being gently molded or shaped from what He’d experienced in the last year; Jesus is facing a completely new environment, new body, new family, new culture, new customs.  It makes my head spin a little and then I fall back into awe and wonder over my Savior.

Could Jesus have actually had an awareness of the enormity of this change as a newborn infant?  Well, I can’t imagine that a typical newborn like you and I could really grasp the severity of the change we experienced from the comfort of the womb to the shock of the birth and life on the outside. But then, Jesus was more than a newborn, wasn't He?

Regardless, I’m in awe and wonder which leads to hope and great expectation. My wish for us, as we count the final hours of 2014 and look forward, is that we would allow the experiences of the past year shape us into something that is more gentle and loving, stronger and wiser, more grateful and generous than before.  Although, Christ didn't actually improve with age, (because you can’t add to what is already perfect) right?  However, He allowed us to see the face of God, and to know the works of His hands, and hear His words of love.  

I pray that we are able to sing a new song, and see the marvelous things He has shown us.  That we are able to know and are steered toward what is right and good. And that we would experience and express the love of God generously!  AMEN and amen.

Psalm 98

1 Sing to the Lord a new song,
    for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm
    have worked salvation for him.
2 The Lord has made his salvation known and revealed his      

   righteousness to the nations.
3 He has remembered his love
    and his faithfulness to Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the 

   salvation of our God.