12/20/23
Already? All ready? Alright!
I’m not. Not at home, not at work. Writing, cooking, wrapping, ordering… So much to do and so little time.
Would I be too busy to answer a call, only to find out someone needed a friendly voice during a sad moment of holiday memories? Would I be too busy to hear the knock at the door of a stranger needing help for his very pregnant wife, or too fearful to answer? Would I be too busy to see Jesus in the midst of flour and bows and Amazon deliveries and sermons waiting to be birthed? To attend Christmas worship?!
Would I miss the joy of Christmas?
Or the good news of great joy, the promise of a coming peace? All.of.it? Because it’s already time and I’m not all ready?
From Thanksgiving through Christmas, our days and nights can be filled with “have-to’s:” efforts to get a few more hours of overtime to pay the light bill, let alone buy a gift–making sure no family traditions are forgotten even though they have become more chore than joy. …………… These lists we are completing and checking twice become burdensome.
Until they are over and we pause to reflect. In that moment we recall someone’s smile, another one’s surprise, and a thank you we didn’t need because we knew, we knew, it was all worth our effort. We might warm inside as we recall something special done for us.
I have said my favorite day of the year is January 2 because there’s leftovers and nothing to do but remember and be grateful.
Sabbath
Beloved, that is the idea of Sabbath rest, the precursor to our promised eternal peace. Enough food and nothing to do except rest in the gifts around us with gratitude. Sabbath is a way of life that is currently practiced on a specific day of the week, 1 day after 6 days of work and schedules and busyness. However, Sabbath is meant to invade those other six, seeping into the rhythms of our lives such that we become accustomed to putting away lists and answering calls , less fearful of strangers, more enlightened in our vision of Emmanuel, God with us, knocking at the doors of our days in many a guise.
Sabbath in our lives becomes a dance to the choruses of angel songs that brings their prophesied peace into our reality.
Maybe we don’t have to wait for the seventh day, or January 2, to rest and rejoice. Maybe Christmas Day can begin our new Sabbath lifestyle. For to you a child is born and he is your wonderful counselor, mighty God, and the prince of peace.
Be still and hear the angels singing all around us of God’s presence with us.
Rejoice, Emmanuel shall come you!
All is ready. All is right. You got this.
Have yourself a merry Christmas!
Peace,
RevBev
Enjoy the music by clicking the highlighted links here or above.
Dolly Parton’s Angels in the Midst;
Frank Sinatra’s Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,
picture link: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, Tabernacle Choir.
Images: https://teachingmyfriends.blogspot.com/2011/12/running-out-of-time-to-be-festive.html;
sharefaith media subscription used by permission.