The Power of Focus

Thank goodness that everywhere I have been, there have been the sights and sounds of Christmas constantly before me. It helps me focus on "the reason for the season." I have contemplated the journey of Jesus from the wooden manger to the wooden cross, how joyous was his coming with angels on high celebrating and how tragic his death with loved ones mourning. And then the resurrection with victory finally ours and HIs.

I have chosen this season to do an advent reading each night before going to bed to support my mind to keep this priority. But actually, that is my challenge every day: to remember why I am here and what it is all about. Like a sheep, I am drawn to the next little patch of grass, forgetting for the moment that I was on a journey foll0wing the Good Shepherd .

I pray that as the manger scene takes place in my heart day after day, as Christ is born afresh, that He will not be aborted in my heart, nor that He will be stillborn, but that He will be birthed and made known through my life. My favorite passage for Christmas is Galatians 4:19: Paul laboring in birth "until Christ is formed in you". Making room in our "inn", clearing a space, for the formation of Christ, must be a conscious, daily, intentional choice. So let it be.

The Extraordinary

There I sat in a sanctuary, listening to the choir, amidst the beauty of stained glass and cathedral-like ceilings. The voices sang of the beauty of baby Jesus from everyone's perspective: heavenly hosts, visitors, shepherds, parents. No matter who took note of the moment, each beheld Him in awe and wonder. A Savior was born, and oh, how we needed One.

Somewhere in all that, I saw in my mind's eye, people in their homes surrounding the scene and those walking by outside, minding their everyday dailiness, unmindful of the extraordinary taking place in the ordinary. some in fact, most, were not aware that a miracle was taking place.....that God was actually being birthed on the earth...than an amazing miracle was happening in a wooden manger....one day leading to a wooden cross. Yes, a Savior was born, and oh, how we needed One.

And then I saw us, you and me, in our everyday dailiness and wondered if miracles were happening in our very midst as we walk on our roads or sit in our houses or sleep in our beds....and that we too are unaware....of God's continued hands touching the earth. Heaven still touching earth in miraculous ways....

It was a comforting contemplation...the miracle of god reaching down, touching hearts to birth grace, love, forgiveness, hope, and other life-giving forces....right in our midst and sometimes right inside our own hearts.

Journey

Wish I knew who deserved credit for this: "If as Herod, we fill our lives with things, and again with things, if we consider ourselves so unimportant that we must fill every moment of our lives with action, when will we have time to make the long slow journey across the desert as did the magi, or sit and watch the stars as did the shepherds, or brood over the coming of the child as did Mary? For each one of us there is a desert to travel, a star to discover and a being within ourselves to bring to life."