Welcome to the season of Epiphany. Over the weekend, I posted one of my Epiphany prayers on Facebook. It includes the lines:
The Christmas star has not faded,
It has been planted in us.
The light of the world has not dimmed.
It shines in you, in me, in all creation.
And the darkness can never extinguish it.
I really need these words at the moment. Christmas is over. This weekend we took down our decorations, dismantled our tree and turned off the Christmas lights. Everything suddenly looks very drab, and here in Seattle a dreary rainy day adds to that feeling. However, this month of January is a very important one. It is one that helps to set the trajectory of the rest of the year. It encourages us to think about the future, spend time listening to God’s voice and take time for discernment, and planning and, if you are a gardener like me, its time to begin planting too.
Henri Nouwen in his book Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life suggests that discernment needs to become a way of life for all of us, but we all need help to move in that direction. Ear marking January as a month for discernment is a great way to move the rest of our lives in the right direction. My own personal journey this year began with rereading both Nouwen’s book and Margaret Silf’s Sacred Spaces: Stations on a Celtic Way which provided the framework for my Monday Meditation: Letting Go. What she suggests is that we all need to strive to make decisions that encourage our roots to grow deeper. Our goal should be to develop the inner core of our being so that it draws us closer to God, to each other and to all of creation. Every time we choose well and grow our roots deeper, our ability to discern the next steps to enable us to grow into the people God wants us to become will grow a little bit sharper and more clearly defined.
It is easier for us to focus on the upward growth and the fruit, but this really is only an outward sign or an inward development. A good question to ask ourselves in every decision we make is: “Which course of action is more likely to lead to a deepening of our true self and a closer bonding with the truest self of every other creature and of all creation?”
I encourage you to develop your own discernment process for this month. Maybe you would like to read Nouwen or one of the other books in Godspacelight’s The Art of Discernment reading list. Please also consider signing up for the Spiritual Discernment: Finding Direction in a Confusing World webinar at the end of the month. This will be a great time to explore some of the best practices that help us discern and make discernment into a way of life.
Last night we chalked the doors on all three floors of our Mustard Seed House Community. What a fun activity to begin this season with. Like Emily Huff, who sent me the Chalking the Door description and practice several years ago, I never tire of this tradition to mark our door and to take a moment to remember the friends and family who have passed through our door during the past year. It’s great to give thanks for them, and to ask for God’s blessing and light to shine on those who will come through our door in the coming year. I talked about this in my sermon at Seattle Mennonite Church on Sunday too and one of the congregation came up to me later and told me he had already started his list of people to pray for.
The next wonderful celebration on my list for the year is Imbolc and Candlemas. I look forward to making St Brigid crosses again. Lilly Lewin and I talked about this in our Facebook live session Candlemas, St Brigid and Praying with a Cup last year. So if you are looking for another celebration to enjoy before Lent begins make sure you check it out.
I loved Lilly Lewin’s Freerange Friday: An Invitation to Follow… the Star. Don’t miss the stunning art piece of the Magi she included as well as her wonderful reflection. It was also a delight to have Ana Lisa De Jong contribute someNew Year’s Eve poems. She has blessed us with many such gifts over the years. I heartily recommend these new poems as well as her The Gateway to Heaven: Poems for Contemplation that is available as a free download from the Godspacelight store.
On Wednesday, Barbie Perks posted a very profound post Comfort My People that revolved around a discarded bird’s nest that she picked up. “How many times do we as people, I as a person, tend to discard God’s comfort without reason? Sometimes we just flat out don’t even know what that comfort looks like because we are so focussed on what we want, how our issues could be resolved, that we are oblivious to what God is doing in our lives. I know I am guilty of this.”
Last week, Forrest Inslee and I recorded the introductory episode for my new podcast The Liturgical Rebels and in the next few weeks I expect to interview Kelly Latimore, Drew Jackson, Scott Erickson and Brian McLaren. So exciting! No definite launch date yet, but I am still aiming for a birthday celebration for me on January 18th.
I am also delighted to announce that you can now sign up for our spring webinar series which begins with Spiritual Discernment in a Confusing World on January 27th, followed by Lent Quiet Day – Beauty from Ashes on March 2nd and then Spirituality of Gardening on May 11th. Once again we have a reduced price for those who sign up for all three. Your participation in the Spirituality of gardening webinar also includes a digital copy of To Garden With God.
Life is very full and very satisfying at the moment, though I am aware that we live in an uncertain world as is expressed in this closing prayer by the Celtic saint, St Brendan.
Help me to journey beyond the familiar
and into the unknown.
Give me the faith to leave old ways
and break fresh ground with You.
Christ of the mysteries, I trust You
to be stronger than each storm within me.
I will trust in the darkness and know
that my times, even now, are in Your hand.
Tune my spirit to the music of heaven,
and somehow, make my obedience count for You.
The Prayer of St. Brendan
Many Blessings
Christine is offering three virtual retreats this winter: Spiritual Discernment: Finding Direction in a Confusing World, Lent Quiet Day: Beauty from Ashes, and Spirituality of Gardening. Register for all three retreats here.
AT HOME IN OUR HEARTS
What if the Holy One were hidden,
the truth at home in our hearts.
What if truth were a person,
rather than a set of concepts,
fruitless rules.
What if truth were a body broken,
not unlike our own,
prone to shattering.
And a body resurrected,
that all its broken pieces,
married to our own,
might bring us into wholeness.
What if our body were a vessel
of the Divine
a place where God lives as the Invisible,
despised and rejected,
as vulnerable as a babe in arms.
What if our hearts,
in alignment with his,
burn within us,
like Mary’s awareness
of the Light held in her womb.
What if the Light that Mary bore
into the world
is now the glow that our hearts contain,
and emit through the sacrificial
tasks of living.
What if the fire inside is the truth
which refines,
and leaves us,
as Christ’s body on the cross,
with the flesh and the temporal shed.
TO DO
Do what you can do,
or don’t do at all.
When you are at the crossroads
laid low with sorrow,
weary or ill,
know,
that he who is at the crossroads,
the bedside,
or by the chair where you sit unseeing,
whose name is Love in any language,
every faith,
or lack of it,
sits with you,
so still.
Yes, what you can see or do
may be minimal,
but the cross roads,
the sick bed,
the place of vigil,
or grief’s reminiscing,
its remembrances,
unraveling,
is the very place in which you
will find your meaning,
your comfort and restoration.
Someone holds a mirror quietly for you
amongst the rubble of yourself,
that the eyes you soon see
are your own, longing and open,
mapping a future,
re-imagining what’s been altered.
No strident advice given
to hurting ears,
instead
this presence of Love is rather like,
the Balm of Gilead,
the spark that rebuilds a fire,
the foundation stone
upon which the author of your days sits,
handing you a pen.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
‘We’re all golden sunflowers inside.”
– Allen Ginsberg
UNFOLDMENT
We must unfold it,
to see what is written.
Life’s pages are not foreseen,
except in dreams,
and hopes and plans,
which in the unfolding
we must marry with what is.
Life’s pages are always surprising,
unnerving,
in how they ask more of us
than imagined.
And yet,
in the very living and unfolding
we become equipped,
a muscle strengthened by the climbing.
Life’s pages are written in linked cursive,
a building upon themselves
like stones in mortar,
and yet flexible and responsive
to movement,
as rooted trees
with their wind-blown foliage.
We must unfold it
with hope and courage – Life –
which is always a fusion of what we bring
and what is awaiting us.
For in the marrying of ourselves
to tomorrow,
we take all that is best in ourselves,
all that is developed,
and mix it
with the wonder of Life’s newness,
tasting and adjusting for sweetness,
and with the aid of new revelations,
until Life in her fruiting and blooming
then starts again,
all decay and leaf-fall
to burgeoning spring.
by Christine Sine
Christmas is over. This weekend we took down our decorations, dismantled our tree and turned off the Christmas lights. Hardest for me was packing away my Advent/Christmas wreaths. I have really enjoyed my new Celtic Advent wreath with its six candles plus one in the centre for Christmas Day, and it is hard to let go. However as Margaret Self reminds me in her book Sacred Spaces: Stations on the Celtic Way, which I am currently reading, all cycles of our lives come to an end and the cycles of the liturgical calendar are but a reflection of that.
Margaret Silf talks about mountaintop experiences and valleys, concepts that we are all familiar with when we think about our life journey. She points out that mountaintop experiences expose us to a burst of creative energy capable of fueling the next stage of our journey. However we cannot live on the mountaintops. “They demand of us that we move on that we walk back down to the valleys of our daily lives, there to live in the power and live out the vision of what we have seen and what we known on the summit”
I feel Epiphany is a little like that. We are coming down from the mountaintop experiences of Christmas and now it is time to live out what we experienced. For some of us it is time to let go and allow new things to bud and grow in our lives.
What really caught my attention this weekend was her likening the cycle to the nature of trees.
Every cycle of our lives has its unique and particular springtime, bringing that initial burst of energy, so too each cycle has its autumn, its fall, its time of coming down from the heights.
This cycle reflects the nature of trees, and where they direct their energy. In spring all their life-force seems to flow into the rising sap, the buds and the fresh leaves, the supple young branches, the new growth. And then in winter the direction of that energy seems to turn, down to the roots, so that the tree might survive and deepen its hold on life. (Sacred Spaces: Stations on the Celtic Way 75)
As she says, it is easy to notice the above-ground part of the cycle when everything seems to be growing and reaching out. Buds, new tree shoots followed by flowers and fruit. This is the spring and summer of the cycle, the time when life seems good and everything above ground is flourishing.
However there comes a point in the cycle when we move into autumn and then winter. Our life energy seems to change direction. As we move into the colder seasons of the year, flowers fade, leaves begin to fall and the tree’s energy now goes into developing roots that go deep and grow strong. If we try to hold onto the leaves and the flowers, the tree suffers, and the roots become stunted and may eventually die.
So it is with the cycles of our lives. There comes a point when we need to come down from the mountain top in order to let the power of these experiences take deeper root. Letting go is about “recognizing what at any particular stage in our becoming is essential to our inner lives, and being prepared, if necessary, to let everything else be subordinated to the overriding choice for what is growing us into who we really are.” (77)
What she suggests is that we all need to strive to make decisions that encourage our roots to grow deeper. Our goal should be to develop the inner core of our being so that it draws us closer to God, to each other and to all of creation. It is easier for us to focus on the upward growth and the fruit, but this really is really only an outward sign or an inward development. A good question to ask ourselves in every decision we make is: “Which course of action is more likely to lead to a deepening of our true self and a closer bonding with the truest self of every other creature and of all creation?”
Every time we choose well and grow our roots deeper, our ability to discern the next steps to enable us to grow into the people God wants us to become will grow a little bit sharper and more clearly defined.
Gradually the whole tree of our own life and of the life of all creation will be strengthened and enriched, and next year’s leaves and next year’s fruit will be all the more radiant and nutritious. Far from losing the leaves we have surrendered, we will find we have gained a wholeness and a deep-down health of spirits and a freedom that opens the channels of our hearts to the “sap” of Life itself, holding us in being. (Sacred Spaces: Stations on the Celtic Way 77)
Fortunately the apparent ending of every creative cycle also provides a gateway through which the inpouring of creative energy will nourish the next cycle. The story of God provides a cycle of life death and resurrection. We know that we cannot hang onto Christmas, just as we will not be able to hold onto Lent or easter in the coming months. These seasons nourish us and provide the inner growth that makes us productive.
Epiphany is a good time to think about this cycle. It’s a good time to work through a discernment process and be honest about the choosing you are making. Which season are you at in the cycle of your life? Are you in a season of spring, or autumn? Are there things you need to let go of that will enable your roots to grow deeper? Are you starting to send out buds in a new project or relationship?
by Christine Sine
One of my favourite epiphany practices which I have done for the last 5 years, is the chalking of the door. I first came across this practice when I was in Germany several years ago, a first puzzled by these strange patterns over the doors which spelled out a hidden code. Now I display the same hidden code over my own back door, and people often ask what it is all about.
Either on Twelfth Night (January 5), the twelfth day of Christmastide and eve of the feast of the Epiphany, or on Epiphany Day (January 6) itself, many Christians in Europe chalk their doors with a pattern such as this, “20 † C † M † B † 24”. The numbers refer to the calendar year (20 and 24, for this year); the crosses stand for Christ; and the letters have a two-fold significance: C, M and B are the initials for the traditional names of the Magi (Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar), as well as an abbreviation of the Latin blessing Christus mansionem benedicat, which means, May Christ bless this house. Taken together, this inscription is performed as a request for Christ to bless our homes and stay with those who dwell in them throughout the entire year. This year I found this simple graphic that helps explain it. Of course we don’t really know the names of the Magi. We don’t even know if were three of them, or if they were all men, but it is still a fun way to bless our homes and welcome others into our midst.
I love the way that people use their own creativity to chalk their doors. Some do it across the top. Some do it down the side and others, especially if they have small children, do it across the bottom. My favourite image of chalking the door was sent to me last year by a Godspace follower who had never chalked her door before because she always thought it had to be done across the top. But as you can see, when she learned otherwise she went to town and decorated the whole door.
2011 chalking the door
Here is a simple but effective blessing to go along with your chalking of the door. Thank you Emily Huff who originally posted this
A Blessing of the Home
(L=Leader, C=Community)
L: The Lord is with you;
C: And also with you.
All: Peace be to this house and to all who live, work, and visit here.
L: Let’s take a moment to remember the friends and family who have passed through our door during the past year and give thanks to God for them.
C: (say the names of friends and family who have visited)
L: The three wise men came to Bethlehem in search of Jesus. They brought to him precious gifts: gold to honor the newborn king, incense to the true God in human form, and myrrh to anoint his body, which one day would die like our own.
L: Let us pray. O God, you once used a star to show to all the world that Jesus is your Son. May the light of that star that once guided wise men to honor his birth, now guide us to recognize him also, to know you by faith, and to see you in the epiphanies of the daily experiences of our lives.
L: Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord — Jesus born of Mary — shall be revealed.
C: And all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.
All: As the Wise Men once sought your brilliant light, O Lord, so may we seek to live and work in your splendor.
L: O God of Light, bless this (our) house and this (our) family. May this be a place of peace and health. May each member of this family cultivate the gifts and graces you have bestowed, dedicating our talents and works for the good of all.
L: Make this house a shelter in the storm and a haven of rest for all in need of your warmth and care. And when we go out from this place, may we never lose sight of that Epiphany star.
C: As we go about our work, our study, our play, keep us in its light and in your love.
A Blessing of the Chalk for Marking the Door
L: Lord Jesus, through your Incarnation and birth in true human form, you have made all the earth holy. We now ask your blessing upon this simple gift of your creation — chalk. We use it as a tool to teach our children, and they use it as a tool in their play and games. Now, with your blessing, may it become a tool for us to mark the doors of our home with the symbols of your wise servants who, so long ago, came to worship and adore you in your first home.
People in turn mark the doorway with one or more of the symbols:
20+C+ M+ B+24
L: May we, in this house, and all who come to visit, to work, and to play, remember these things throughout the coming year. May all who come and go here find peace, comfort, joy, hope, love, and salvation, for Christ has come to dwell in this house and in these hearts.
All: May we be Christ’s light in the world. Amen.
(Copyright © 1999. The General Board of Discipleship of The United Methodist Church. Used by permission
We are invited to Follow the Star in 2024
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
6 “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’[b]”
7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. MATTHEW 2: 1-12 NIV
When you think about Following what things come to mind? What do you feel,think about, or see?
Is it a positive or a negative word for you?
The Dictionary defines FOLLOW:
transitive verb
1: to go, proceed, or come after
followed the guide
2a. to engage in as a calling or way of life : pursue
wheat-growing is generally followed here
b. to walk or proceed along
follow a path
3. a.: to be or act in accordance with
follow directions b. : to accept as authority : obey
followed his conscience
I think of :
Following the Leader…like in a line at school
Following Directions like in baking a cake or going to a new place.
Following the rules
Following people on social media
Following the sunset when I travel or as I walk my dog.
Following the Star …like the Magi
The Magi, the Magicians, Astrologers, Wise Ones, followed a Star for two years in order to go worship a new King. They left everything familiar and all the comforts of home to go seek out this King and worship him.
They were on the road for a long time. They were in unfamiliar territory, most likely hostile to them and their beliefs, yet they CHOSE to keep going and to seek out this new king.
Since they knew that the Star was forecasting the King of the Jews, they sought him in the main city, in Jerusalem at the palace of King Herod. Yet Herod hasn’t heard anything about this new king. Herod hasn’t been paying attention to the heavens. To the signs. He’s been too busy being greedy and violent, seeking power and prestige. When this Entourage from the East arrives at his palace, his world is disrupted. He is scared. And it must have been a big group, not just three kings/magi because ALL of Jerusalem was frightened with him.
Are they being overrun again? Is this group of foreigners friend or foe? Is this new king a threat?
Herod asks his wise ones where a new king might be born. And they let him know that Bethlehem in Judea is the place the Messiah is to be born …so not just any old King! But the KING OF KINGS! The ONE WHO SAVES, the Deliverer they have waiting for for 400 years! The KING OF THE JEWS!
These Magi have followed a Star that may be forecasting the birth of THE KING!
But rather than celebrate and go along with this group of seekers, rather that FOLLOW, everyone stays put in the palace. Herod asks the Magi to send word back after they find this child but we don’t have record that ANYONE goes and FOLLOWS the STAR with the Magi.
This has always bothered me! Wasn’t anyone the least bit curious?
Wasn’t anyone interested?
Or were they just too busy with their regular lives to be bothered with an adventure?
Were they all just too comfortable in the palace to take a trip to Bethlehem?
Was it because these guys weren’t Jewish that they didn’t believe them? Or were they afraid of them because they were different? Or was it that they didn’t want to “pollute” themselves by traveling with them? Or being seen with them because they were Gentiles?
It was less than 7 miles to Bethlehem. 10 kilometers or so, so not a very big commitment to just go and see.
It makes me wonder how often I miss the invitation to FOLLOW when it doesn’t fit my schedule or when the invitation disrupts my comfort zone or comes from someone I don’t know well or looks different from me.
How often do I refuse the invitation to FOLLOW?
Do I receive and OPEN the invitation to go seek and worship Jesus? or like Herod and his wise ones do I stay stuck in the palace?
Jesus says “Follow me” over 20 times in the Gospels. Am I paying attention? Are we listening? Are we receiving that invitation ?
We are all invited to Follow the Star in the NEW YEAR.
What would make you Follow the Star in 2024?
What makes you want to stay at home? Talk to Jesus about the things that are keeping you stuck.
King Herod wasn’t curious. He wasn’t looking for the Messiah. What would help you get curious about FOLLOWING AGAIN?
The Scribes in Herod’s court could look up information, but they didn’t do anything with it. They didn’t take action. We who have known Jesus for a while often have a lot of information about Him, we have memorized scripture, read lots of books, etc, but how are we FOLLOWING ? How are we doing the things that Jesus did?
Think about the Wise Ones, the Magi.
They were looking for something, they were expecting something BIG!
They were trained to read the stars and they chose to PAY ATTENTION!
They were willing to take a risk, to take ACTION! Are we willing to RISK?
How do we want to be Followers in 2024? What is Jesus inviting us to in this next few weeks and months?
WHAT IS THE INVITATION Jesus has for you and me? How is Jesus inviting you to FOLLOW him and his star in the new year?
Where are you today?
What would it take for you to follow the STAR?
Like the Wise Ones of Old, are you willing to go on an Adventure to find the King?
Even if no one else goes along?
Are you willing to leave your comfort zone to find King Jesus?
Are you willing to risk?
What is God’s STAR calling you to?
Are you willing to take your treasure to the King?
Even when things don’t look like you expect them to look, are you willing to follow?
TALK TO JESUS ABOUT THIS
ACTION:
What two things do you need to do less of in order to follow the Star in the New Year?
Less Netflix, less social media, less shopping, less anger, less comparison, less wasted time, less judgment of others, less prejudice, less shame, less busyness, less judgement, etc. What do you need LESS OF?
What two things do you need to do or do more of …in order to follow the Jesus this year?
Examples:
More compassion, more serving the poor, more honesty, more prayer, more trust, more love, more creativity more rest/Sabbath, more________?
You might write these on paper stars or post it note stars and put them in your journal or somewhere you will see often to remind you.
Ask Jesus to help you follow Him in 2024…and invite some friends to journey with you! The Magi didn’t travel alone. They were in a group! So maybe you need a gather a new group and Follow together!
Tell Jesus where you are on your journey…He is not afraid of how you feel or where you have been. He knows we get stuck in the palace. He knows that we are exhausted by the world and all it’s pain and conflict. He knows that even 10 km feels like a long walk.
Know that Jesus just wants to be with you NOW and ALWAYS! You are not alone. You are GREATLY LOVED! You are invited to FOLLOW!
James Tissot’s Journey of the Magi in the Minneapolis Art Museum
CREATING
My Bible begins,
‘When God began creating…’
I’m doubtful though
that when the worlds were born in a big bang
and life burst forth,
that God, at sweep of hand,
announced it as good.
And question
that she then sat to rest,
her task completed,
laying down her tools.
I know no artist who stops
out of inclination,
the need to create an upswelling urge
breaking with the dawn,
returning under starlight.
The work that is true
is never complete,
and ‘good’ to the artist
is ever a faint representation
of the possible ahead.
No, my God is a God of seasonal changes,
like the writer making endless amendments,
inspired revisions.
How the trees tell us this,
and the weather with its benign blue mantle,
its wild winter storms.
Sometimes God appears
all quiet and receptive
as a garden under a soft golden haze.
While every now and then
she will shake the foundations,
wipe clean the canvas,
start again.
AT THE HORIZON
Sometimes we need go to the sea,
where no line is drawn between earth and sky,
and the waves, the colour of the sun,
dance against heaven.
Here the horizon is limitless,
a passage for the setting of the day,
that she might rise on a new dawn
with no obstacle.
Our knowledge that the sun travels on
beyond her disappearance,
is a reminder for us to believe
in continuance, and in beginnings.
Tomorrow she will bow out again,
as a guest aware of not outstaying welcomes,
like most good things
of which the gloss wears off
without loss, the great balancer.
Here by the ocean, the largeness
of everything is the counterpoint
to the small and mundane,
the minutiae we get caught up in.
Anything too small cannot be seen
against the magnitude of heaven.
Except for us walking into the light,
breathing and dreaming of tomorrow,
as though it all depended
on our conspiring, when really
we are given countless opportunity
every day, endless openings,
to all the ways the light finds us.
WHAT YOU DIDN’T DO
What didn’t you do?
Did you not stop a flood
or save a forest from fire?
Did you not stop yourself from falling,
or the careless word from slipping?
Did you not protect another from themselves,
or keep the phantoms from their heels?
Did you not preserve the peace,
or keep your own triggers from rearing?
But who are you? Just human.
And though you’ve given yourself
the role of reconciler,
saver of days
you try in your own might,
like the labouring builders
seeking purchase upon sand.
Perhaps we are to task ourselves
with the holy work of healing
our own selves first,
acknowledging our intrinsic worth,
alongside our human frailty.
Perceive ourselves forgiven,
that in the awareness of our own broken walk
we might find compassion to lend,
and the mercy which saves,
in the way it mirrors
the love we’ve each inherited,
can hardly believe we needn’t earn.
photos by Ana Lisa de Jong
The Gate to Heaven: Poems for Contemplation – Download
Free book of poems by one of our community writers, Ana Lisa de Jong called “The Gate to Heaven: Poems for Contemplation”. Enjoy this collection of beautiful, contemplative poems.
by Barbie Perks
Isaiah 40:1-11 is read in conjunction with Mark 1:1-8 as the lectionary reading for the second Sunday in Advent this year. It is usually read as referring to John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus.
This year for my Advent practice, I purchased a copy of John van de Laar’s The Making of a Messiah and have been blessed in using it. I have been challenged to re-think what it means to hope (week 1) and now in week 2 I’m challenged anew by what it means to be a peacemaker. One thing that strikes me is that I can’t pretend to be a peacemaker (much as I would like to) if I’m not at peace within my own heart.
I have known for some time that I tend to overthink things, especially things that bother me, and the thinking/arguing/justifying conversations that I have in my own head at times can drive me up the wall! The devotional reading this week, and the questions to help me work through it, provided an insight into my heart I had not perceived before. I am responsible for the chaos, the conflict, the violence I do to myself with and through my thought life, and until I make peace in my head and heart, I will not be able to make peace in my relationships or even in the community around me.
My daily walks have been interesting as the week has progressed. I have been talking to God about this insight, and inevitably my thoughts will wander depending on what I am seeing around me. I have been able to recognise and bring those thoughts back to order, to banish the conflict I sense coming at me. A result is a new sense of peace flooding over me at that point. It is a journey I’m embarking on, preparing the way for a new Peace-filled walk with God.
Two days ago, I spotted and picked up a discarded birds nest. It was intricately made and even had soft grass flowers lining the inside of the nest. I thought it would have been quite soft and comfortable. But for some unknown reason the nest had been discarded. A thought popped into my head, asking how many times we as people, I as a person, tend to discard God’s comfort without reason. Sometimes we just flat out don’t even know what that comfort looks like because we are so focussed on what we want, how our issues could be resolved, that we are oblivious to what God is doing in our lives. I know I am guilty of this.
I have hung that bird’s nest on my Christmas tree to remind me to look deeper for the comfort God provides, to be more aware of the peace that comes when I address and banish the conflict that rages in my thoughts and to welcome the opportunities to build peace into my relationships when they present themselves.
May God lead you into peace this Christmas season, may He fill you with hope and joy, and may you feel His love as you celebrate anew the birth of Christ this year.
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