Small Signs of God - Humility

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." Psalm 23:1

Stop, not so fast, Christmas!

The quiet of the morning  says the frenzy for another year is about over. Children are home from school and sleeping late. The parties are over.  The Christmas tree lots are almost bare and there are signs of clean-up and closing up shop.  I catch myself looking into my January calendar.  But wait - I want this Christmas to linger.  This peaceful watching and waiting has done what Advent is supposed to do. It has suddenly filled me with quiet joy and humility.  I want time now to simply stand still and just behold the experience. All I want  is to enter this home stretch to Christmas Day in s-l-o-w time and just be in Advent - one with God. One with Jesus.

Maybe it is why we love the sheep so much in the Nativity. They don't have a speaking or acting role. They just come, watch and wait for their shepherd to guide them, feed them and care for them. When I was young I got to hold a baby lamb in my arms and feed it from a bottle. The mother had rejected the lamb and it would have died had my father not known what to do. My sister and I got to care for that helpless lamb and it grew and became a pet that we nurtured and cared for and loved with all our hearts. Hearts that broke when "Lamby-Lou" grew up and left us.

Could it be that Jesus, the Good Shepherd, thinks of us as his pet? Has He nurtured us this Advent as we have waited and watched for his coming? Dependent? Helpless? Needy? Has he cared for and loved us with his heart - so much that he has entered into our own hearts and we are one? If we can answer "yes" then we have the greatest gift of Christmas.

Faithful Shepherd,

You watch over me and you stay by my side.

I shall not want.

Small Signs of God - Seven Days

 Seven days until Christmas. The days are full of good things and well wishes as we make our final Advent steps to Christmas Day. Like you, I have my  list of things to do. It will be enough.  It's not so big when I think about what God did in seven days:

Monday - Light 

Tuesday -  Sky and water

Wednesday - Land, seas, vegetation

Thursday - Sun, moon and star

Friday - Fish and Birds

Saturday - Animals; man and woman

Sunday - God rested and declared all that he had made to be very good.

Not only the gift of creation, but throughout time God has given gifts to His world. Ann Weems in her poem "Gifts from God" reminds me of these additional gifts: a garden, knowledge, things, rainbows, manna, prophets, children and then the ultimate gift of love in the form of Jesus.

Talk about a lavish gift giver! My little wrapped gifts can't begin to compare - unless they are wrapped in the same love that has been shown to me from Heaven above and given unconditionally. When this, my final Advent week, is over I, too, want to declare that all I had done this week was very good.

"There are some that don' t open their eyes

 or their ears or their hearts

and they still say, that's not quite enough.

They wander through the stores looking for Christmas.

But others open their whole being to the Lord, bending their knees to praise God.

carrying Christmas with them every day.

For these the whole world is a gift!"(Kneeling in Bethlehem, pg.70)

Great Giver of Gifts,

I want to be among the ones 

who bend their knees to you. 

I want to carry Christmas with me every day.

Small Signs of God - Gifts

James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."

We were doing some Christmas shopping and got stuck in a traffic jam. Waiting to move forward, my husband looked to me and said, "And what about you? What would you like for a Christmas gift this year?"

I extended my hand to his nose to see what he thought about the new perfume I had sampled in the store.  He liked it. Then I suggested maybe a bird feeder or some gardening clippers.  He nodded. Or a new sauce pan. He perked up. I couldn't get very enthusiastic about wanting anything and then the traffic moved and thankfully, we moved on in our conversation.

I kept thinking about the question: what do I really want? Oh, I can always give out a list of material things. I can find pleasure in the material world. But it never satisfies me. My daughter witnesses this short satisfaction every day in the department store where she works. People frantic to get just the right one - the one that just came out in the catalog. But a new catalog arrives every two weeks and the styles change. We keep on temporarily fixing ourselves with the temporary.  It's like the perfume that smells so good and then it fades away and we need more.

The real list lies somewhere down in my heart and wants to cry out, " I want a broken life to mend. I want a family together. I want an end to the names of fallen soldiers called out each Sunday. I want my heart to feel strong. I want no more cancer for Shirley and Jack and  Diane and Ed and Mary Claire. I want a miracle for little Patrick and  2-year-old Maggie. And I want a peace about all of this and I want it to begin with me."

But wait. It is one week until Christmas and I  have already received the best gift I could ever receive. It's Jesus. He is the one who can take my heart's list and check off each one to perfection. My job is to keep receiving His wondrous gift. It is a sweet aroma that will never fade or change.

A Twinkling Star

"We have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him." (Matthew 2:2)

Something draws me to gaze at the night sky. Last night there was an opening in the clouds with  one very bright star twinkling down. In my quick and limited research, I have concluded that it could be Vega, the brightest star in the Lyra constellation.  Lyra, according to Greek mythology, is associated with the myth of Orpheus, the musician whose music was so sweet that Zeus  placed Orpheus and his harp in the night sky. Lyra has been known as Kind David's harp. But did you know it is also known as the Manger of the Infant Savior? That's all the research I needed for my Advent journey.

Why do stars bring tears? 

Looking into the night sky is a discipline I learned during a time when nothing made sense in my life. I would go outside during the night and feel the darkness suffocating me. As I struggled for breath, I would turn from the darkness and look up. Tears would fill my eyes. Strength would flood my soul.  Courage would  pump into my depleted heart. As I looked up, grace came down and filled me until the next night when I would return depleted and needy.

To look up and "see" the Manger of the Infant Savior shining down - oh, not shining, but dancing and twinkling, strong and pure, fixed and secure in all of time and space - well, tears are fitting. Tears of joy. Tears of gratitude. Tears of awe and wonder.

I love the way one pastor talks about star-gazing:

1. The Star leads to God.

2. Only those who look, see.

3.Only those who follow, find.

4.Not every one follows.

5.Those who follow, always find.

Jesus, You who are the Bright Morning Star,

                when I look I see you,

                      when I follow, I find you and I worship you.  

Small Signs of God - Lost Sheep

It happens every Advent. I begin peaceful and calm, resting in the start of the season of joy and peace. I pace myself. Then I look at the calendar and realize the time is passing and I still have things to do. A few presents to purchase.  Cookies to bake. Letters to write.  I begin to wander off in my rush and the frenetic pace to December 25th beckons me to stray. Even in worship,  I still have things to do. Things to think about more deeply. Things to ponder over and over in my heart.

I turn to Isaiah 53. It is about the serious role Jesus would play in our lives. There is nothing about silent nights or peace or beauty or calm; instead Isaiah points to the future about an unattractive man who people will despise. Isaiah writes about people who will hate so much they will kill the man and sell his clothes.  Even friends will desert him. Isaiah brings it closer to home and points to the reader and says that all of us, like stupid sheep, wander off and this man - this Jesus will be the one who will take our wanderings and stupidity, forgive us and perfect us.

Hard things to think about at Christmas time. We'd rather bake the fruitcake and wrap presents than consider the cost of Christmas in God's economy. And yet, He came. He took thirty years from His reign in Heaven and humbled himself to be Jesus, the one who would love perfectly. The one who would offer his life so you and I might live forever. He comes today as the good shepherd looking for his lost sheep.

I remember the music of Handel's Messiah proclaiming the very words:

"And He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; and He shall gather the lambs with His arms, and carry them in His bosom and gently lead those that are with young." (Isaiah 40:11)

Great Shepherd,

You have experienced 

more than I can comprehend,

and here you are this Christmas - 

feeding me, gathering me, carrying me.

                 Lead on,  Gentle Shepherd.