He Has Done Great Things for Me

This morning I read Mary's words of worship in Luke chapter 1. I realized that the God of Mary is the same God who lavishes good things on me.

For he who is mighty has done great things for me...and his mercy is with those who fear him...He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts...and he has filled the hungry with good things... Luke 1:46-55 ESV

Mary's words express my heart as well as I look back over the past year. I can see God's mercy over each day I crossed off the calendar. In learning the differences between parenting and step-parenting, I am the proud whose thoughts he scattered.  It was a good thing.

I am also hungry he filled with good things. Literally. For the past couple of weeks I set aside the habits of healthy eating I worked to develop this past year, and indulged in all the rich Christmas foods and fudge my refrigerator had to offer! I must say I thoroughly enjoyed every bite.

On a more serious note, he has also mercifully filled my soul hunger. The book of Psalms says that he "sets the lonely in families"(Psalms 68:6, NIV). I am so grateful for the companionship and love of my husband and the liveliness of my two year old step-family. He even filled my hunger for a slower pace by giving me the opportunity to change careers and spend my days writing.

God's greatest blessing is the most difficult to express. Even if he had not yet met the desires of my heart for those tangible things, I would have much to be thankful for. The gift of God's nearness to me through the past year and the confidence that he will be with me as the new year dawns are the greatest gifts by far.

Along with Mary I say "My spirit rejoices in God my savior."

Immanuel. God With Us.

"Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means God with us)." Matthew 1:23

I love the word Immanuel. In one word it sums up life.

Immanuel. God with us.

Life is not about living for God. It is about living with God.

I am not sure why humans like to make simple things complicated, but we seem to. We endlessly define and quantify right behavior, but trying to live a good life above all else is not Christian. Every other religion defines right behavior and encourages followers to live good lives. Christianity is different.

God himself came to us. That is Christmas. Jesus paid the highest price possible in order to make it possible for us to be with him with no barrier in between. Because of Jesus' birth, death, and resurrection we get to live life with him. All we have to do is accept the Christmas present God gave us.

Immanuel. God with us.

When we have accepted life with him, we will want to live like lovers committed to a life together. Lovers want to be near their beloved. Lovers want to please their beloved.

God is with us and we want to be as close to him as we can.

Immanuel! God with us!

Merry, Merry Christmas!

His Name Shall Be...Prince of Peace

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end. 

Isaiah 9:6

During the Christmas season I sing about silence and peace, but rush around in noise and turmoil. It strikes me that I need to remember that the baby in the manger was also the Prince of Peace.

In contrast to the words of Silent Night, Jesus entered a world that was anything but serene. Politically, Israel was an occupied country with corrupt men in charge. Many of the men in power in religious circles had primarily their own interests at heart. Additionally, there were the daily pressures of relationships and physical survival.   

Have you ever noticed that Jesus' daily life was not easy? Sometimes there was nothing to eat, or hoards of people were vying for his attention, death was imminent because their fishing boat was getting swamped by huge waves, or evil men were looking for ways to entrap and execute him. Jesus never seemed hurried or stressed, even when his disciples were panicking for entirely valid reasons. Jesus lived as an oasis of serenity in the midst of tumult. Jesus seemed to see beyond and beneath what the disciples saw. He knew whose hands held the world, and his daily existence. He relied on his Father in heaven in everything big and small, and calmly walked through his days as a man, and at the same time as the Prince of Peace.

I succumb to turmoil like the disciples did.  I would like to be like Jesus instead, unfazed by hurry, and worry, acutely aware that both the details of my daily existence and sweeping events of my world are in the hands of the Prince of Peace.

A Perfect Gift List

The Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen. 
--Reinhold Niebuhr

Serenity, the state of being calm, peaceful, and untroubled. 

The Serenity Prayer first appeared in print in the 1930s, a time decidedly not characterized by serenity. 

Reinhold Niebuhr prays for perfect gifts, most useful for living in a tumultuous world.

Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus - Must See!

Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus - Must See!

www.youtube.com

http://www.AlphabetPhotography.com/ -

This surprising intrusion of the transcendent Hallelujah Chorus into a mall food court brought tears to my eyes the first time I watched it. A choir of voices, like the voices of angels, showed up as shoppers and janitors, in order to bring the higher into the lower. The divine invaded the loud, smelly, chaos of ordinary life. That is what Christmas is after all. Christ, the divine became one of us and invaded the smelly reality of the human world. Hallelujah!

Celebrations

I heard somewhere that one of the best ways to cut back on eating sweets is to enjoy them more.  If I stop everything when I eat chocolate, nibbling very slowly,  and turning my full attention to the silky flavor as it slips over my tongue, I find myself more satisfied when it is gone.

The general idea is to make eating a piece of chocolate into a celebration of its delightful taste.  I think that the same principle applies to many things in life.

Almost everyone celebrates holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations and weddings, but those are not my favorite celebrations. The best celebrations are the ones that rejoice over the small stuff.

One of my favorite celebrations is my traditional celebration of the first snowfall. I invite whatever family members happen to be nearby and willing, to join me reading Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowing Evening". We read slowly, savoring the words, while we sit too close to the front of the fireplace and sip hot chocolate.

We also celebrate spotting the first flower that pokes its head out of the ground in the spring. In a couple of weeks my warm-sunny-days loving husband and I will be celebrating the winter solstice, because starting then, the days will begin steadily getting longer.

We celebrate God's magnificent artistry by stopping to watch sunrises, sunsets, and the full moon.

Celebrating the small stuff helps me remember to be fully alive to life, savoring it like chocolate instead of chewing and swallowing it automatically without giving it my full attention.

I celebrate bittersweet things too. I held a private celebration for one after receiving my first kindly worded, if generic sounding, email from a publisher explaining that they could not use my submission. I celebrated because the email confirmed that I had faced down the paralyzing fear of rejection that for years prevented me from sharing anything I wrote.

Quirky celebrations like that one may actually be the most important celebrations of all.  They are the pivotal little moments when I pause in my automatic rush through life, to celebrate God-with-me on this journey. I celebrate the fact that He uses everything, even disappointment, pain, and heartbreak to lead me to a place where I am "more than a conquerer".  

Making Mudpies

I think one of the secrets to living life well is practicing the art of making mudpies.

There is nothing like the childish delight of sinking small arms into the middle of a muddy mess, making a "delicious" pie, and then serving it to an obliging parent. Growing too big, too sophisticated, or too careful to make mudpies is tragic. 

Most people's lives are muddy messes. Some are messier than others, but no one gets through life without encountering mud.

The choice then, is not between mud or no mud. It is between being the unhappy child futilely trying with dirty fingers to wipe the mud away, or being the bold child who wades in, plops down with a broad smile, and makes something beautiful from it.

God is the master mudpie maker. He made humans from mud. He cured blindness with mud. He did it, in part, because his beauty is all the more visible dramatically framed in simple, clay, cracked, human pots.

I want to reflect his image in this. I want to remember how to wade into the mess with a smile on my face, and help Him create something beautiful from the mud.

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us." 2 Corinthians 4:7 (ESV)