We are in the second week of traditional Advent…between Peace and Joy
Where are you finding yourself these days? How are you experiencing PEACE even in the craziness of the season and the brokenness of the world? What signs of JOY have you noticed?
The journey towards Bethlehem is getting closer. Are you feeling closer to Jesus or are you somewhere out in the fields still waiting for a sign?
Take a breath, pause, BREATHE IN HOPE, PEACE, JOY and LOVE today. Allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you through the everyday things of your life and watch for the GIFTS and God surprises along the way.
Happy Friday….this time last week, Rob and I were on a plane flying home from England. We had a wonderful holiday celebrating 40 years of marriage doing lots of touristy Christmas things in London, visiting our dear friends Martin and Sally Poole in Brighton and finishing with a wonderful, romantic stay in Andover at the Jack Russell Inn so we could check Highclere Castle off my bucket list! Another highlight was celebrating Thanksgiving at the American Thanksgiving service at St. Paul’s Cathedral with our friend Maggie Dawn. As Rob said, what kind of imagination does it take to envision such building.
st pauls
I am still in awe that 1984 was 40 years ago. And since I’m 35 in my soul, I’m not sure how it’s possible. We kept saying to folk, we were 8 years old…when we married.
Now it’s back home to reality and that reality includes a flooded ceiling in the kitchen. So my dreams of coming back and decorating for Christmas have been put on hold while we navigate with insurance and try to find people to give us dry wall estimates. Thankfully, our son who was house sitting called the right people to dry everything out and had a lot of the clean up done, but having an open floor plan in our main living space had meant that everything is higgledy piggledy and a mess!
I have been asking…What is the Gift?
When on pilgrimage we ask “What is the Gift from God?” In the interruptions, in the missed trains, in the crying babies on the plane? What does Jesus want me to notice, or to understand? What is the Gift Jesus is inviting us to receive?
Sometimes this takes awhile. Sometimes I don’t want to receive the gift! Sometimes the interruptions are just annoying and anxiety provoking.
But God is with us in the MESS!
Jesus, Emmanuel, came to be WITH US in all the messiness of life! Including flooded ceilings! Which is such a minor thing when compared to sickness and warfare, and the hunger and hate that we see in so many places right now.
So I am receiving the Gift of a slow Christmas. Remembering that it is really isn’t Christmas until Dec. 25th and the Christmas Season is Dec. 25- January 6th.
We are still in the Season of Advent. We are in the week of PEACE almost to the Sunday of JOY!
Can I can choose to OPEN the gift of PEACE this week even though things are not happening the way I had hoped or planned? Today I am answering YES!
Be Open to the Gift
Since everything was a mess inside, I took time to decorate on the outside. Still not finished with that yet, but having a Christmas wreathe on the door and greenery replacing the dead flowers in the pots has helped my spirits greatly.
I am receiving the GIFT OF LETTING GO….letting go of my expectations and perfections. I am choosing to be with, and for people rather than the stuff of the holidays, and I am letting a friend host our annual Ugly Sweater Party instead of me.
Receiving the Gift this Season
What gifts do you need to receive this Season?
Hope, Joy, Peace, Rest, Love, Compassion, Forgiveness,_________?
Author CS Lewis says,” if our hands are full of too many packages, we cannot receive any new gifts.”
So what things do you need to release to God so you can receive a NEW gift?
What “packages” do you need to put down? Will you let Jesus carry the burden for you and let others help you this season….Consider who can you ask for help from today. AND ASK THEM!
“God came to us because he wanted to join us on the road, to listen to our story, and to help us realize that we are not walking in circles but moving toward the house of peace and joy. This is the great mystery of Christmas that continues to give us comfort and consolation: we are not alone on our journey. The God of love who gave us life sent his only Son to be with us at all times and in all places, so that we never have to feel lost in our struggles but always can trust that he walks with us.
The challenge is to let God be who he wants to be. A part of us clings to our aloneness and does not allow God to touch us where we are most in pain. Often we hide from him precisely those places in ourselves where we feel guilty, ashamed, confused, and lost. Thus we do not give him a chance to be with us where we feel most alone.
Christmas is the renewed invitation not to be afraid and to let him— whose love is greater than our own hearts and minds can comprehend— be our companion.” Henri Nouwen
As you wrap your gifts this week ask Jesus to remind you of all the gifts he has given you this week, this year. Take time to be grateful When you receive a gift from someone pray for that person to know that they are loved and accepted by Jesus. Ask Jesus to help you be a GIFT to someone who needs help these last days of December. And give yourself the GIFT OF GRACE. You are not behind, you don’t have to be perfect. It all doesn’t have to be done today! YOU ARE LOVED by EMMANUEL! Wrap yourself in the Gift of this LOVE! AMEN
Give yourself the gift of stillness,
Both outside and in.
Reach for the wonder of each moment.
Be transfixed by the beauty,
In a flower, a life, a beloved face.
Love is born afresh in every moment of the day,
If only we have eyes to see,
And ears to hear,
The wonder of it.
Christine Sine
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com