Advent Week IV: Peace

For all of us, the story behind these days can draw us in, and invite us to bring our lives to the mystery of how Jesus came into this world and why.  Our best preparation for the Holy Night ahead and the Joyful Morning to follow is for us to reflect upon how he came.  He came in the midst of scandal and conflict.  He came in poverty.  He was rejected before he was born.  He was born in a feed trough.  He was hunted down.  And he grew up in obscurity.

He did not shun our world and its poverty and conflict.  He embraced it.  And he desires to embrace us today, in this day.  Right where we are.  Right where we are feeling most distant.  Right were we are feeling least “religious” or “ready.”  If we let him come into our hearts to be our Savior these challenging days, we will find ourselves entering the sacred night and morning of Christmas “joyful and triumphant” as never before.

Come, Lord Jesus.  Come and visit your people. 
We await your coming.  Come, O Lord.

(reflection found here)

Lord you know my poverty of spirit. You know the lowliest, dung filled, restless parts of me.  Yet you come....you live...you dwell.  

You ask me to b e l i e v e. To trust your good heart and intentions.  This time of year is filled with great reflection: what was, what could have been, disappointments, hope deferred, graces given, unexpected gifts.  That you come, into the messiness of it all and offer p e a c e  a m a z e s.

Lord this morning you spoke through your Word about Zachariah and Elizabeth.  How they had waited and hoped for a child.  You said they were faithful and you gave them a promise.  I stare up at the art piece I did so many years ago about that promise...in the tender, angst filled place of singleness and unrequited love you had me paint.  


Stroke by stroke, layer upon layer... 


B E L I E V E.  


To believe in your kindness, goodness, and faithfulness in spite of my circumstance. 

And I guess that's the thing about faith and hope Lord, especially this time of year, regardless of the IS of my life you ask me to believe in your unfailing goodness, in your fullness of time, in the things I do not see, and 
T R U S T.  Child or no child. Husband or no husband.  Money or no money.  You came to dwell, you came to give your life, you came to reveal the kingdom now, you came that I might have life, in spite of the world, my flesh, the enemy...IMMANUEL GOD WITH US!

So come dear Jesus, in the tender, uncertain places and crevasses of my heart and L I V E.  Offer your P E A C E.  

It is only in you that I can enter that P E A CE within.