Advent 2013.
READ SCRIPTURE
Luke 1:1-7; 11-17
A clear picture…to know with certainty. That is the picture of intent painted by Luke, the good dr. (writer of the gospel Luke)
To observe the ordinances of God…to be without blame. That seems quite a task. A task seems like a job, a job feels like work – work seems like labor and labor doesn’t usually get associate with anything positive other than paying a debt and labor is owed….or paid; it is due. Yes, that’s it….the debt is due. It’s Christmas…we are celebrating the fact that God entered the world through the virgin, Mary. It was Mary who put on a labor of love….she carried the Lord…she birthed Jesus Christ. She encountered His angel, His Spirit, and His call on her life…(so that He would enter our world and pay our debt) Yet, so did her cousin, Elizabeth. It was Elizabeth…whom would become pregnant by Zechariah – through something miraculous, of the Lord, in her old age…and his old age – this notion was forgotten and dismissed by most, themselves included; that they were “barren” and no longer able to become pregnant.
I wonder if you know what it feels like to be forgotten, dismissed, thought less of…and simply…no longer?
This baby, cousins with the baby to be born of the virgin Mary, would “make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” (Luke 1:17 NIV) This baby would be the one to help turn the hearts of man toward the acts and love of God! Zechariah and Elizabeth, we are told, observed the commands and the ordinances of God. They were obedient. They were faithful. Yet God had something in store for all of them….for all of us. He was continuing the motion of putting on His most prized and most powerful display of His pursuit of you and me: Christmas.
When the angel of the Lord told Zechariah he was to father a child…he was in disbelief. He was frozen scared at the sight…and at the thought. Fearful. Frozen. I wonder, when have you been frozen at the wonder of God? Frozen…at what He might have been…or still is…up to within you? What is it, that God, is UP TO…in you?
As we wait…and watch Christmas unfold…what is about to happen, here within me, within you – over all of time? Will you soak in this Christmas story? Will you allow it to become personal and real….more than ribbons and strands of tape. More than wrapping and cards in the mail….more than kettle corn and candies: It’s Christmas!
Read slowly, as in a prayer, Psalm 130.
A prayer. Lord, I long for You, your touch, your healing…your presence. There it is…I long for your Presence. I believe that is the point. We long for your Presence…..before this season we are embarking on….we are looking back at the 400 years of your silence. (between end of Old Testament and His entrance into the world…)
Silence.
And then…..You broke the silence.
Allow me (us) to listen, to watch, and prepare our hearts to ready ourselves for You. Maybe that REALLY means – would You ready us for You? We need You. I need You.
Blessings,
-ao
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