Gifts

I hate shopping...Ask my Dad...he knows that to get me to a store, he must do one of the following:

a.  only go to one store
b.  feed me afterward
c.  feed me between stores

Yes, I know it sounds ridiculous.  For some reason, Christmas shopping isn't quite as bothersome to me.  Maybe it's because I've found the joy of online shopping.  But, I think it's a little deeper than that.  I like the anticipation of seeing a loved one's face when he or she opens the gift I took time to think about before purchasing.  I love that we know each other well enough to know what to get each other.  There is meaning in gift giving.

You know the three wise men, right?  Apparently they arrived when Jesus was a few years old....but they had journeyed to see this baby, this promised one.  Have you ever thought about their gifts?  They were lavish gifts, fit for a King...that was expected at that time...bring your best.  But I wonder, did they feel kind of foolish when they presented their gifts to a small child?  Did they have thoughts of "What is he going to use this for?  Is he going to chew on it?"  

Maybe that's the point...God surprised them.  God is still surprising us with how he comes, how he is at work, the people that he shows up in...And God accepts us and our gifts for what they are.  Gifts are gifts...God just wants us to come.

Elizabeth and Zechariah

Have you ever stopped to think about the role Elizabeth and Zechariah played in the birth narrative?  They were ancient, had long given up on having a baby...and yet, God fulfilled their hopes for a child, late as it was.  A former pastor shared with us in choir the other night that there were so many priests in that day and time that they would have only gone into the temple, into that sacred space, maybe once in their lifetime.  It just so happened, or maybe happened for such a time as this, that Zechariah went in and came out unable to speak at the news he received.  Because of his inability to even sputter, everyone knew that he had been in the presence of God.

God was making preparations...making sure that people knew that with God all things are possible.  And their son, John, was preparation himself.  Perhaps he inherited that from his parents, the ones preparing the way for the birth of the Christ.

Mary went to visit Elizabeth "and when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.  And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, 'Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!  And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?  For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy."  Luke 1:41-44

Elizabeth was ready...she heard what God was saying and felt what the Spirit was doing because she had made preparation in her very spirit.  And even as a baby, John recognized the significance of what was to come.

Am I that in tune with the Spirit?  Are we preparing the way for the coming of our Lord?  Yes, there will be a second coming and that way needs to be prepared, but I'm talking about a daily preparation...are we looking, eagerly anticipating how God will come and move among us?  

Watch for those leaps inside of you and rejoice!

The Angels and the Birth of Christ

Have you ever stopped to ponder the role of the angels in the birth narrative of Jesus? Were angels appointed to be the ones who proclaimed the birth of Jesus to Mary, or the ones who hovered over the Christ child?  Or were the hosts just hovering, all a part of the celebration of God coming to Earth?  I don't know, but I do know that they proclaimed "Great tidings for all people!"  They got to be the ones who declared the one who would save the world, the joy that came, the fulfillment of many prophecies and dreams.

I read an article today...here's an excerpt from it...

"There's more to their joy than our everyday garden-variety joy.  You see, their joy is not in their own salvation, forangels will never know the joy of their own salvation.  The joy they know is a joy in our salvation, a joy that has been welling up for literally millennia, since the beginning of time..."

The angels rejoiced in our salvation.  Their focus was on others instead of self...they experienced true joy because they saw beyond self and to the joy of others.  The news they had to proclaim was bigger than they could even imagine.  The news we hold in our hearts to proclaim is bigger than we can imagine...have we learned the joy of proclaiming it?

Life at the fullest!

One year ago, joy entered my world that almost cannot be put into words.  I will try to capture with words what it feels like to meet your flesh and blood for the first time.  My brother and his wife helped create the most beautiful little girl I've had the pleasure of meeting in my life.  Laying eyes on her for the first time was something miraculous.  Looking at my sister in law and my brother, faces full of hope and exhaustion, and of adrenaline....I was so proud of them for taking on the adventure of a first child...committing to the beginnings, middles, and ends of raising a child.  And every time I look into Miley's eyes, there is this knowing.  It's almost as if she knows that I belong to her and that she belongs to me.  It is a beautiful thing.  God knits new life together in shadows and secret....and when creation is birthed, it is whole and complete.  New life comes, and we get to experience an awakening, a newness of who we are, of who God is, and of what the world can be.

Thank you God for new life...and for a year of blessing, of reminding my family that new life comes every day, in the bright eyes of a little girl.

Glad Tidings!

"Glad tidings of great joy I bring
To you and all mankind!"

"All glory be to God on high!
And to the earth be peace!
Goodwill hence forth from heaven to earth,
begin and never cease,
never cease, Never cease, NEVER cease!"

This is all we need today...to know that our news comes with great joy that never ceases!  NEVER CEASES!  So we do not cease bringing it to others.  If we are to be like Jesus, we are to be great light, unexpected news, never ending joy to the world!

Let's do it!

The Peace...

We sang a song in church on Sunday that just stuck with me.  Here are some of the lyrics...

"It's still a mystery to me

That the hands of God could be so small,

How tiny fingers reaching in the night

Were the very hands that measured the sky.

How his infant eyes have seen the dawn of time

How his ears have heard an angel's symphony,

But still Mary had to rock her Savior to sleep."

One of my dear friends just had her second child...you go girls for getting that done.  I went to see them in the hospital and am continually amazed by the birth of a baby.  Mary was a teenager by our current standards and she believed what God told her was true, that she would give birth to the Savior of the world.  But she still went through contractions, anxiety at being a new mom, pushing a baby out of her. Yeah, maybe a little too far, but think about it.  There is a journey required for the birth of a child.  There is excitement; there is preparation of mind, body, and spirit.  There are a lot of unknowns....and Mary went through all of that.  She probably felt it even more because she couldn't see the end of the story like we can.  It was all a process....a figuring out of mothering and letting Jesus be Jesus.  What a big job.

And after a woman gives birth...after all of the pain and struggle and months of waiting, there is a moment of peace...a moment of clarity when you look at the baby and everything else disappears.  When you see in that new life the promise that you've been waiting for.  Mary experienced that too...the difference was that she birthed peace for the rest of us too.

Watchfulness

So, Sunday's lesson was about the concept of "watchfulness."  The writer correlated the two comings of the Savior...I was having trouble comparing the two that morning, but since have had some thoughts...are you surprised?  Ha.

I am a teacher.  Most of you know that teaching was something I stumbled into...first as a preschool teacher.  I was thinking yesterday about watching my class....20 four and five year olds every day.  Talk about watchfulness...I had to be like a hawk.  On the playground it was next to impossible to keep track of all my kids.  All the sudden, I would look and see two boys, one in a headlock, the other chunking wood chips at the other.  So, watchfulness to me is being aware...of taking into account multiple factors at one time.  I feel like this is what God tells us to do.  And I feel like we've missed the mark.  We want a formula.  We want the watchfulness to follow a set of rules, guidelines, and steps.  

Think about it.  Mary was engaged to be married.  An angel appeared to her.  Elizabeth was like 90 years old and became pregnant with John.  The shepherds were minding their own business, tending their sheep, and bam!  The Savior of the World is in Bethlehem, not far from here...you might want to go check it out!  When God comes, it is not with a formula, or with expected timing.  

Whether thinking about the first time God entered the world, or when God will come again, we must prepare ourselves...and prepare the way.  That means living the kingdom here, on this earth...creating kingdom where you are.  And all the while, having a sense of watchfulness....of looking, being aware of those around you that need a kind word or a smile, of being in tune with how God has already come.

God has come.  God will come again.  God comes even now.  Have you looked for him?