A Borrowed Wish

American Christmas comes and squeezes us; jangling our pockets and wringing the last ounce of our energies. Yet, in the art of ancients...we see a composed Mary bowed in admiration. An aura of fullness and wonder somehow still emotes through centuries, since that wondrous night.
Fullness and wonder
How?
We are squeezed and wrung!
Mary's heart was waiting and wishing for the Promised One.
Mary's heart was humble and focused.
And when the waiting finally gave way to the Answer,
Mary's wish was granted and she rejoiced.
Here is what Mary wished for:
God's best wishes...not flimsy, ill-conceived, or poorly timed.
God's best wishes:
"His mercy upon generation after generation toward those who fear Him."
 Lk. 1:50
"Lifting the humble" v. 52
"Filling the hungry" v. 53
Performing "mighty deeds with His arm" v. 51
Deeds of protection and justice,
The Answer to Mary's wish, the coming of Jesus was the initiation of God's wishes for us coming true...
The first Christmas was the initiation of God toward humanity.
In America and all over the world we are still waiting to see His wishes for us in the fullness of hearts yielded to Him.
So I'm going to borrow Mary's wishes this Christmas-
That, waiting for Him to bring us all into the "great things" He has promised, will prepare our hearts in humility and focus so that when our waiting gives way to His answer, we are ready to rejoice!

Prayer:"

Lord, teach us to wait like your faithful servants. When our days are full of freedom and space, guard us from sowing hope in temporal things, which have no permanence and make us hollow. When our days are full of strife and pain, guard us from despairing of your love. Teach us to wait like Simeon, who lived only to see the Son of God. Teach us to wait like Anna, who made her home in the house of the Lord. Teach us, the church, to say with one voice, ‘mine eyes will see the salvation of the Lord.”

Amen. JessamyDelling, http://ccca.biola.edu/advent/2017/#day-dec-24

Advent Invitation

Luke 2: 8 "And in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace with whom He is pleased." 

What is “Glory”? “Glory” in some ways defies definition.

It reminds me of trying to repackage something back into its original box or wrapping a very large gift; just when you think you've got it all covered, you find another part.

By definition, this unwieldy word means profound honor, profound value, intense brilliance.

Glory is the “Big Reveal” of God’s magnificence. The “Ah-hah” moment of what is true about Him…

Physical manifestations of an unseen reality.

It is a noun... unparalleled beauty and power that belong to God alone.

It is also a verb meaning “to take great pleasure in, to revel”

“Glory” is God, cracking the clouds of our reality and inviting us into His.

Glory has to do with those inexplicable moments that seize our hearts and draw us into worship.

Luke 2:14 is one of those moments :

“Glory to God in the highest…”

The Angels called out to the shepherds. Verse 13 describes these angels as “Heavenly Hosts”.

What does a good host do?

A good host says: “Welcome to my home! Come in, share this with me...let’s enjoy it together.”

This call of the Angels to glory was an invitation for these unlikely guests to taste the deeper, truer, richer reality of their existence.

The call to Glory is an invitation to come and revel in the deeper, truer reality of all that belongs to God and because of Jesus, all that belongs to us.

Heavenly reality seems to lie always on the outskirts of our reality. It appeared to be outside the shepherds’ reality and outside of Mary and Joseph’s as well...until the Heavenly Hosts burst through the heavens.

God’s beauty and power are so great we literally can’t handle Him, in our present condition! We must slowly be changed into people that can handle our true “home”, our real-er reality. In the meantime, He’s given us invitations to visit with Him.

Our days are dark but there are moments when God provides sneak peeks of what is and what is to come.

Christmas is time when we are more surrounded by extra displays of beauty, peace, and love,

or a more profound awareness of the lack of it in the here and now.

It comes and goes and with it so do our moments of happy anticipation and great disappointment.

We all often crawl into January with a “not quite” residue in our souls.

But Christmas is an invitation for us to visit with God, to come at the angels call and revel in His reality a little more,

a little longer.

Jesus came, some despised Him.

Some competed with Him for His Glory.

And some saw it and were welcomed in like the shepherds.

Let us not despise this opportunity in cynicism and anticipated disappointment. But instead take time to really look for Him everywhere, in everything. Remember that Jesus Himself brought glory to God in the moment of His greatest pain.

And let us not idolize this opportunity, by staring at beautiful things and clinging to powerful moments for so long that our eyes never drift up to the actual source of the beauty and power. Only the source Himself lasts...all the rest,

all of those “sneak peaks” cannot last, they cannot satisfy because they are only meant to lead us TO Him.

“Glory To God In The Highest…”

When Love Seems Cruel, Part 3

Death is the "darkest thing we know"...and this is where Jesus had to go to undo the work of darkness. He had to go into it. In His Holiness, He is the only One who could bear this moment of cosmic confrontation and win. But as He forged further and further into that darkness, the light of His Father's presence felt far, far away. That's what suffering does; it takes time and stretches it to unbearable lengths. Relief is so long in coming we wonder whether it is coming at all. But the beautiful Psalm Jesus quoted in his agony does not end as it begins. Psalm 22:24, "For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; Nor has He hidden his face from him, but when he cried to Him for help,
He heard."
Where was God the Father when His Son was suffering? He was at work undoing our undoing! And Jesus was and is the delivered deliverer.
Our Saviour's words of groaning from the cross were not whimpers of desperation, but roars of a conquering victor leading through the unimaginable struggle of battle.
  "Because our King has led the way—more than that, He has made the way. There was no way through death until He burst death open from the inside. Death swallowed Him, but it was like swallowing the sun: He was a burning light that could not stay obscured. Not even by the darkest thing we know." Jessica Snell, http://ccca.biola.edu/advent/2017/#day-dec-5
Here ends, for now, my thoughts on Father God's heart toward His Son and toward us.
"How deep the Father's love for us
how vast beyond all measure
that He should give His only Son
to make a wretch His treasure....
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished..."