Too Good - to not share with you.
Keeping our focus on the Reason for the Season........
may your day be blessed!
S.
---------------------- Forwarded by Sandra R McNichols/HOU/ECT on 12/19/2000 
07:54 AM ---------------------------


"Kerry Nelson" <covenant@pdq.net>@covenantlutheran.org on 12/19/2000 05:46:58 
AM
Sent by: devotions-admin@covenantlutheran.org
To: "2 Devotions" <devotions@ecunet.org>
cc:  
Subject: [Devotions] Tuesday, December 19th


Good morning.  Welcome to Tuesday, December 19th.

"Trust in the LORD, and do good; so you will live in the land, and
enjoy security.  Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the
desires of your heart.  Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and
he will act.  He will make your vindication shine like the light, and
the justice of your cause like the noonday.  Be still before the LORD,
and wait patiently for him; do not fret over those who prosper in
their way, over those who carry out evil devices."  Psalm 37:3-7

"Are you ready for Christmas?"

The odds are pretty good that you are going to hear that question
today, either spoken to you or by you.  It is our seasonal snappy
conversation starter.  And we all know what it means...  NOT "Are you
ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus?" or "Are you considering again
the degree to which you are willing to surrender your life to the
lordship of the newly born King?" or "Do you trust that, when Jesus
comes again, you will be among those who will spend eternity with
him?"

"Are you ready for Christmas?" means "Do you have your shopping all
done, your presents wrapped, your cards in the mail, your packages to
UPS, your house decorated, your travel plans in order?"

Strange, isn't it, how Christmas transforms normal human parents into
the shipping and receiving department for children who already have
enough?  Our fascination with Christmas has far more to do with the
presents under the tree than with the incarnate presence of Jesus.

And so this season of waiting becomes an almost obsessive
preoccupation with what we might get...  We sing about not pouting,
shouting, crying, being bad or good... for goodness sake?  Not really,
reminders to be good at this time of year is not about the psalmist's
advice to "Trust in the LORD, and do good; so you will live in the
land, and enjoy security."  In our day, we throw a bone to being good
so that Santa will be good to us.

That's why, in just a few more days, "Are you ready for Christmas?"
will be replaced as a snappy conversation starter by "Was Santa good
to you?"

So we wait.  We wait for Sunday...for the festive worship service?
For the singing of carols and receiving Jesus again in bread and wine?
For gathering with friends and family, those in whom God also dwells
for us?  Or do we just wait to see what we are going to get?

Maybe all this preoccupation with presents over presence isn't all
bad...  At least it gives a sense of urgency to the season, something
that gives us at least a taste of the urgency in the faithful's
waiting for the Messiah to come, and to come again.

In the meantime?  In the meantime we would do well to do as the
psalmist advises, "  Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you
the desires of your heart."  If we take some time during this last
week of shopping before Christmas to remember that it is Jesus for
whom we are waiting, it is God's presence which we are adoring, then
maybe the real miracle of Christmas will happen in our lives.  Not
that we will get everything we desire, but that everything we desire
will be holy.

Let us pray:  Draw near to us, dear Lord, in this season of waiting.
By the power of your Spirit, fill us with holy desires and the ability
to see through the glitter of this season, through the presents under
the tree, to your presence in our lives.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

-----
Pastor Kerry Nelson
Covenant Lutheran Church
http://www.covenantlutheran.org


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