Advent Devotionals

Harmonious

Posted on by Betsy

Music is such an integral part of Christmas for me. I learned how to sing in church, standing with my father who sang bass, my alto mother, and my sister who had perfect pitch and made up her own beautiful alto/tenor harmonies. I feel bad for every pastor I have served with who suddenly gets treated to my “inventive” harmonies which don’t quite follow the hymnal, but are harmonious in their own way. With the first Advent hymn I sing, Christmas blossoms in my heart.

Music can do that to you.

We were designed for worship and praise. As God knit us together in the womb, he had a plan for his people to be able to come and adore him in harmonies that have only been heard by the angels. I suppose that is why Christmas carols and Christmas songs are so important to this season. They set the stage for the advent of Christ in our hearts and draw us to that angel choir that hovered above his manger at his birth, singing their glorious “alleluias.” God invites us to sing along.

In the fifteenth chapter of Romans, Paul reflected on why Jesus came and how we should respond to him. Not surprisingly, he says that we should strive for a maturity of personal harmony with one another that will make us into a choir … “not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem.” What a beautiful image!

Romans 15 (The Message)

3-6 That’s exactly what Jesus did. He didn’t make it easy for himself by avoiding people’s troubles, but waded right in and helped out. “I took on the troubles of the troubled,” is the way Scripture puts it. Even if it was written in Scripture long ago, you can be sure it’s written for us. God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm, personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us, keeping us alert for whatever he will do next.

May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. Then we’ll be a choir—not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus!

If we are to be a choir of worshippers who live in harmony, we have a few things to do. First, we must stay true to God’s purposes for his creation, which is to live in peace together. That may mean laying down old grudges, prejudices, and bigotry. Next, we need to invite outsiders in and welcome the insiders to return. As the “choir,” we can be integral in reaching out to welcome one another in love and acceptance for all.

7-13 So reach out and welcome one another to God’s glory. Jesus did it; now you do it! Jesus, staying true to God’s purposes, reached out in a special way to the Jewish insiders so that the old ancestral promises would come true for them. As a result, the non-Jewish outsiders have been able to experience mercy and to show appreciation to God. Just think of all the Scriptures that will come true in what we do! For instance:

Then I’ll join outsiders in a hymn-sing;
I’ll sing to your name!

And this one:

Outsiders and insiders, rejoice together!

And again:

People of all nations, celebrate God!
All colors and races, give hearty praise!

Ask yourself if you are adding to the harmony of God’s worship or detracting from it. Have you welcomed the stranger into your heart and your home? Are you able to include every aspect of God’s diverse and beautiful world in your worship? Can you invite your neighbor to church this season?

And Isaiah’s word:

There’s the root of our ancestor Jesse,
    breaking through the earth and growing tree tall,
Tall enough for everyone everywhere to see and take hope!

Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!

I pray that each one of us will do all that we can to share the joy, the peace, and the live-giving energy of the Holy Spirit to an outsider who desperately needs it. Look around … they are in our midst. May we bring the brimming-over of hope to the world this season.

Green Hope by Michelle Robertson

It’s All About You

Posted on by Betsy

What does worship mean to you? What do you experience in that moment? Is it the beautiful stained glass windows, the prayers, the music, the message … where in worship do you connect with God? Sadly, a lot of folks walk through church doors without any expectation of meeting God there. Church can become a duty, a ”check in the box,” or worse, a see-and-be-seen social event, indicating that our hearts for true worship have grown cold.

Matt Redman’s song “I’m Coming Back to the Heart of Worship” serves as our text today. It dates back to the late 1990s, born from a period of apathy within Matt’s home church, Soul Survivor, in Watford, England. Despite the country’s overall contribution to the current worship revival, Redman’s congregation was struggling to find meaning in its musical outpouring at the time.

“There was a dynamic missing, so the pastor did a pretty brave thing,” he recalls. “He decided to get rid of the sound system and band for a season, and we gathered together with just our voices. His point was that we’d lost our way in worship, and the way to get back to the heart would be to strip everything away.”

Reminding his church family to be worshippers in worship, not just consumers, the pastor, Mike Pilavachi, asked, “When you come through the doors on a Sunday, what are you bringing as your offering to God?” Read more here.

King of endless worth
No one could express
How much you deserve
Though I’m weak and poor
All I have is yours
Every single breath
I’ll bring you more than a song
For a song in itself
Is not what you have required
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You’re looking into my heart

And I’m coming back to the heart of worship
And it’s all about you
It’s all about you, Jesus
I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it
When it’s all about you
It’s all about you, Jesus.

At the heart of Christian worship we experience awe, praise, reverence, yielding, and adoration. Worship ignites the human spirit as the spark of God touches our souls. In Exodus 25:22, God gave Moses instructions for building a movable tabernacle and then says, “And I will meet with you there and talk to you … ”

We should strive to commit to a return to pure and true worship this Advent, where we communicate heart-to-heart with our Holy God. 

Commu­nity worship experiences bring the corporate body into concentrat­ing on God. The same principle holds true in individual worship, as our center of attention is focused on the living God. Did you make it to church last Sunday? Check in the box! But what is your plan for the rest of the week? 

Worship is an attitude of putting God on his throne every day as you acknowledge his reign in your heart. And may we offer God our finest first fruits, the best of our resources, and the full tithe of our harvests. Then we will truly be worshipping God as he deserves.

Courtesy of Kitty Hawk United Methodist Church Facebook page

The Light of Life

Posted on by Betsy

The Gospel of John makes great use of dark and light imagery. John beautifully weaves metaphors of night and darkness with sin and death. Light becomes a symbol of Christ and hope. Even at the end of Judas’ betrayal story, John writes that Judas got up from the warmth of the supper in the upper room and went ”into the night.”

As we quickly approach Christmas, our neighborhoods, our trees, our banisters, and even our tacky sweaters are encased in light. We do this as a celebration of the Christ-child, who was born to be the ”Light of the World.” On Christmas Eve, we will finally light the Christ Candle in the center of our Advent Wreaths and proclaim that Christ is a Light that can never be extinguished. Amen!

John 8:12 says this: ”Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; whoever follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

The Light of Life. Think about it! Following Jesus means that we have access to a light that will illuminate our path no matter what tragedy, temptation, or trial encumbers us. Like a flashlight, all we need to do is turn it on and point it toward the darkness.

Isaiah also wrote beautiful words about darkness and light. In the ninth chapter, we discover this passage, which tells us exactly why the Light of the World came:

Isaiah 9 (New Revised Standard Version)

The people who walked in darkness
    have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
    on them light has shined.
3 You have multiplied the nation,
    you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
    as with joy at the harvest,
    as people exult when dividing plunder.
4 For the yoke of their burden,
    and the bar across their shoulders,
    the rod of their oppressor,
    you have broken as on the day of Midian.
5 For all the boots of the tramping warriors
    and all the garments rolled in blood
    shall be burned as fuel for the fire.

And now for the Christmas part:
6 For a child has been born for us,
    a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
    and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 His authority shall grow continually,
    and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
    He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
    from this time onward and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Jesus came to light up your situation. He came with so much power and might, there is no force of darkness you can encounter that could dull his wattage. He is the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace, who brings endless peace to the world.

Do you lack peace right now? Turn on the Light.

The Light Brings Life by Michelle Robertson

Black and Blue Christmas

Posted on by Betsy

When I was a child, my family’s Christmas lights were red, yellow, green, white, and orange. I don’t recall when blue lights came into vogue, but I remember being stunned the first time I saw a tree vibrant with blue LED lights dominating the color scheme. Blue is now my favorite Christmas light color.

After all, blue is the liturgical color for the season of Advent.

Then I experienced my first “blue Christmas,” a phrase now used to define a sad, lonely, and sorrowful Christmas. Not everybody has a holly, jolly Christmas. The loss of a loved one, a divorce, a family member not being able to come home, having to work over the holidays, and just plain disappointment can all lead to feeling blue during the most wonderful time of the year. My blue Christmas was due to three things. I had moved away from my church of 16 years, and I was on leave with no Christmas Eve services to look forward to. My oldest daughter had just gotten married and was spending Christmas in another state with her in-laws. Worst of all, my father passed away suddenly two days after Thanksgiving.

I wasn’t just blue, I was black and blue.

Have you ever felt like a holiday could smack you right down? Holidays can be sneaky little buggers. They can come up behind you without any warning in the mall or at a party and poke you so hard from behind that it knocks the wind right out of you. A flash of memory, a familiar song, a taste of nostalgia, and suddenly, unbidden, you are feeling the pain of your loss with such intensity that you can’t move or breathe. The unhappy irony of that is that Christmas is the celebration of the Prince of Peace, the Comforter:

Isaiah 40

1 Comfort, O comfort my people,

    says your God.

2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

    and cry to her

that she has served her term,

    that her penalty is paid,

that she has received from the Lord’s hand

    double for all her sins.

3 A voice cries out:

“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,

    make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

4 Every valley shall be lifted up,

    and every mountain and hill be made low;

the uneven ground shall become level,

    and the rough places a plain.

5  Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,

    and all people shall see it together,

    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Even in the bluest of Christmases, God comes into our valley of sorrow to lift us up and level us out. Grief is a natural expression of a life that was well loved. It is the heart’s way of dealing with the unthinkable void that death creates. God longs to bring comfort to his people who mourn. He longs to comfort you in your blueness. And here is the good news: he will stay by your side until you begin to feel just the smallest and slightest bit better. And eventually you will.

He won’t leave you or grow tired of comforting you, for he is the everlasting God.

28  Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

    the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary;

    his understanding is unsearchable.

29 He gives power to the faint,

    and strengthens the powerless.

30 Even youths will faint and be weary,

    and the young will fall exhausted;

31 but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,

    they shall mount up with wings like eagles,

they shall run and not be weary,

    they shall walk and not faint.

Are you having a blue Christmas this year? You are not alone. If you look around, you will probably find others in the same color scheme as you. So don’t feel ignored or left out of all of the “have yourself a merry little Christmas” celebrations…others are faking it, too.

I hugged a friend last week who just lost her mother. I know she is dreading this Christmas. I have experienced that same dread and the feeling of disconnect with the joy-to-the-world spirit that others were feeling. I even felt resentful and could not wait for Christmas to be over. As I held her, I heard myself saying, “Every time you miss your mom this season, try to get up and do something for someone else. Think of someone who needs a prayer, or a card, or a casserole, and focus on that.”

I don’t know if that will help. I do know that when we push our way out of our circumstance, we survive for another day and live to tell about it. Sometimes that’s all we can hope for. Blue Christmases are a game of survival. And when grief finally loosens its stranglehold on us, we can begin to feel joy again.

So look around. Others are blue, too. Somebody you know is having a bleak mid-winter this year. Find someone who needs their pain to be acknowledged and let them know that you see them. When you do that, blueness begins to fade….theirs, and yours.

The Cold of Winter by Michelle Robertson

Shaken

Posted on by Betsy

This past Sunday I was invited to preach at my church for the first Sunday of Advent. Imagine my excitement! It lasted all the way up until I looked up the lectionary assignment for Advent Week One:

Luke 21:25-28, 34-36 Common English Bible

25 “There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars. On the earth, there will be dismay among nations in their confusion over the roaring of the sea and surging waves. 26 The planets and other heavenly bodies will be shaken, causing people to faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world. 27 Then they will see the Human One coming on a cloud with power and great splendor. 28 Now when these things begin to happen, stand up straight and raise your heads, because your redemption is near.”

34 “Take care that your hearts aren’t dulled by drinking parties, drunkenness, and the anxieties of day-to-day life. Don’t let that day fall upon you unexpectedly, 35 like a trap. It will come upon everyone who lives on the face of the whole earth. 36  Stay alert at all times, praying that you are strong enough to escape everything that is about to happen and to stand before the Human One.” 

My first response was to catch my breath and reconsider the invitation. Here we would be, in our beautifully adorned Sanctuary for that first Advent celebration, surrounded by lit garland with shells and starfish all over the altar, a huge glowing Chrismon tree, a new banner with beautiful stained glass imagery, and I would get to rise up in the middle of all that beauty and preach about the end of the world. Somehow the images of signs in the moon and stars, the planets shaking, and the people fainting from fear and foreboding did not seem in concert with the warm holly-jolly ambiance.

But the more I studied it, the more it seemed appropriate. Our world seems to be going through dark times right now. The uncertainty that faces our nation, the rumors that Social Security, Medicare, and other social programs will soon be changed, the wars that continue in Ukraine and the Middle East, the outbreaks of violence in our streets, this pervasive feeling of insecurity … people are truly shaken. I am truly shaken. For many people, these are dark times indeed. What will happen next? Only God knows.

But remember what Jesus promises in this Scripture … in the darkest moment, the Son of Man will come in a cloud with great power and glory. This Scripture on the Second Coming comes at just the perfect time for us. For one, like many of Jesus’ teachings, it is a call to hope for those who are facing hard times. And that, unless I miss my guess, includes all of us. 

The point of this text, in fact the point of the entire gospel is this: When there is nothing you can do — nothing — God will act on your behalf. When you are out of resources, out of time, out of patience, out of help, out of hope, when the sea is foaming and the tide is about to take you under, when you have nothing left, no defense, nothing to fight back with, no shred of hope to grasp onto—that is the time to look up, for when things are darkest, that is when you can see the Son in his glory. 

“Stand up straight, raise up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” Jesus says. Salvation is on the way, not because you can figure a way out, not because you have kept your chin up and your upper lip stiff, not because the fictitious “Universe” will use its non-existent power to reverse your course, but because God is going to act. Our Christian hope does not rest in what we might do, but in what God will do. It is God who acts when we cannot. It is God who saves when we are hopelessly mired in sin and shame. It is God who gives us the victory when we are utterly defeated.

And death, even death does not thwart God. God gave us victory over death through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Scriptures assure us that our hope does not lie in our immortal souls, but in God’s resurrecting power to bring life out of death. 

So, yes. Bring on the prophecy of doom and gloom. We will defiantly raise up our heads and when we do, we will see him coming.

Our redemption draws near.

Clouds of Glory by Mary Anne Mong

Get Ready

Posted on by Betsy

I spent last week getting ready for things. Ready for multiple trips to the store. Ready to hike Nags Head Woods. Ready to visit Island Farm and see how they dyed wool in the 1800’s. Ready for a Thanksgiving meal that fed 12 people and two dogs.

The dogs weren’t actually invited to the table, but they partook all the same. My 100 lb. Lab ate an entire 12 roll pack of Hawaiian Rolls right off the counter. The ENTIRE package. Thank goodness I bought two. My daughter’s dog consumed three cinnamon rolls that had been wrapped in foil, but after seeing Georgia’s enjoyment of the Hawaiian rolls, he polished off the remainder of the second packet that was inadvertently left in a bread basket on the buffet after dinner was over.

Today I am ready for a break.

Our Scripture today is an invitation to get ready. Mark is accepted as the first Gospel that was written, so it will be interesting to look at the first words of the first words. What was important? How shall we start this story? Every journey begins with a first step and every story begins with a first word. What did Mark think would be the most important way to start the good news of Jesus Christ?

He begins with Isaiah, and then quickly pivots to John the Baptist.

Mark 1 (Common English Bible)

1 The beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ, God’s Son, 2 happened just as it was written about in the prophecy of Isaiah:

Look, I am sending my messenger before you.
He will prepare your way,
3 a voice shouting in the wilderness:
        “Prepare the way for the Lord;
        make his paths straight.”

This is a convincing and deliberate way to speak to the Jews of the time. Mark begins by presenting Jesus as the fulfillment of a well-known prophecy. Every hearer would have known Isaiah’s foretelling of the promised Messiah. Mark connects the preparation that Isaiah laid with John the Baptist’s call to prepare. This is to demonstrate that Jesus is the long-awaited Jewish Messiah.

John’s preaching

4 John the Baptist was in the wilderness calling for people to be baptized to show that they were changing their hearts and lives and wanted God to forgive their sins. 

Here we find the instructions for how to prepare to receive the Messiah. Change your heart. Change your life. Ask God to forgive your sins.

Sounds a little like Lent, doesn’t it?

But what better way could we possibly prepare ourselves for the incoming and indwelling of God-made-flesh?

5 Everyone in Judea and all the people of Jerusalem went out to the Jordan River and were being baptized by John as they confessed their sins. 6 John wore clothes made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey. 

OK, so John was a little strange in his appearance and habits. But the spotlight was never supposed to be on him. His announcement is loud and clear: there is one coming after me who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

7 He announced, “One stronger than I am is coming after me. I’m not even worthy to bend over and loosen the strap of his sandals.8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

This might be a good day to put down the tinsel, set aside the wrapping paper, and really be about our Father’s work. It was his will to send Jesus so that we might be cleansed of our sins and saved.

How are you preparing? Have you stopped your Christmas preparations long enough to do some Advent soul-searching?

Today is the day. Ask God to come into your heart and take inventory. And be ready for a baptism of confession, repentance, forgiveness, and change.

Come, Holy Spirit! Make us ready.

Meet Roxie from Island Farm, Manteo

What Are You Expecting?

Posted on by Betsy

And so, Christmas begins. Thanksgiving is still in the fridge, wrapped in packages of foil. But for the most part, Christmas has begun in America.

This first week of Advent brings us back to the beginning. The beginning of the church year, the beginning of our journey toward the manger, and the beginning of our faith as we prepare for the Holy Child to be born.

But is it really the beginning?

The awesome blessing of these four Sundays of preparation is how we begin to look backward to the Old Testament to see how the prophets looked forward. In all truth, our journey to the manger begins in Genesis. But for today, we will settle into the lovely book of Isaiah, a common text for Christmas readings. If you are a fan of Handel’s Messiah, you know what I am talking about.

Jesus came to be our Emmanuel. He was born to be our “God With Us.” Isaiah lays the groundwork for the need and the desire for God to tear open the heavens and come down with a fiery presence. The longing and the waiting are beautifully expressed.

Isaiah 64: 1-5 (New Revised Standard Version)

O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
    so that the mountains would quake at your presence—
2 as when fire kindles brushwood
    and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
    so that the nations might tremble at your presence!

We can see in this passage why it was hard for people to receive Christ as Messiah. Born among sheep and shepherds, surrounded with the stink of cow dung as he slept on a bed of hay, Jesus was not what they expected. They expected a “defeating Pharaoh/parting of the Red Sea/slaying all the enemies” kind of savior.

3 When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,
    you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

The mystery of God-in-flesh was still way ahead of them. Their expectation of God was based all in their past.

4 From ages past no one has heard,
    no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
    who works for those who wait for him.
5 You meet those who gladly do right,
    those who remember you in your ways.

As we make our way to the manger this year, what are you expecting? What is on your list of hopes and dreams? Are you looking for a victorious military commander to plow through your adversaries with a flaming sword and a burning shield? Or are you looking for the gentle savior who will leave the flock to find you when you become that one little lost lamb?

Advent is a good time to assess and adjust our expectations. Christmas will likely be very different this year, but at the heart of every Christmas is the advent of the miracle of hope. No matter what your expectations are, hope is always needed. So welcome hope in, and tear open every place in your heart that needs a gentle Savior.

Come, Lord Jesus, come.

Expectant Waiting

Bleak Midwinters

Posted on by Betsy

Merry Christmas to all of you! My hope and prayer today is that you feel the joy, awe, wonder, and relief that Christmas morning brings. But truth be told, there are some among us who carry generational trauma at Christmastime. Today can be a trigger day for those whose families struggled with anger, neglect, abuse, poverty, and deep unhappiness. You may be waking up this morning just feeling glad that the season is over, and all you have to do is get through today. For you especially, I pray that God’s overwhelming peace and hope would flood your soul and replace your memories with calm assurance of his presence.

My favorite Christmas hymn is Christina Rossetti’s In the Bleak Midwinter. I think it speaks into every moment of Christmas: The bleak ones, the reverent ones, the tender ones, and the giving ones.

In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan
Earth stood hard as iron
Water like a stone
Snow had fallen
Snow on snow on snow
In the bleak midwinter
Long, long ago


Angels and Arc Angels
May have traveled there
Cherubim and Seraphim
Thronged the air
But only his Mother
In her maiden bliss
Worshiped the beloved
With a kiss


What can I give him?
Poor as I am
If I were a shepherd
I would give a lamb
If I were a wise man
I would do my part
But what I can I give him
Give him my heart
Give him my heart

If you are bleak this morning, know that you are loved. If you are filled with joy today, reflect on the maiden kiss that Mary gave her baby. If you are happily weary, rest in the company of angels. If you have hope, go out and tell it from the mountains.

Merry Christmas, my friends! Thank you for reading.

Bleak Midwinter by Michelle Robertson

Hurry in Another Direction

Posted on by Betsy

Last week I preached a sermon suggesting we try to “unhurry” Christmas, and I challenged the congregation to listen again to the familiar Luke 2 passage on the nativity and see if they could spot who was in a hurry the night the Christ Child was born. See if you can spot it, too:

Luke 2 (Common English Bible)

2 In those days Caesar Augustus declared that everyone throughout the empire should be enrolled in the tax lists. 2 This first enrollment occurred when Quirinius governed Syria. 3 Everyone went to their own cities to be enrolled. 4 Since Joseph belonged to David’s house and family line, he went up from the city of Nazareth in Galilee to David’s city, called Bethlehem, in Judea. 5 He went to be enrolled together with Mary, who was promised to him in marriage and who was pregnant. 6 While they were there, the time came for Mary to have her baby. 7 She gave birth to her firstborn child, a son, wrapped him snugly, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the guestroom.

8 Nearby shepherds were living in the fields, guarding their sheep at night.9 The Lord’s angel stood before them, the Lord’s glory shone around them, and they were terrified.

10 The angel said, “Don’t be afraid! Look! I bring good news to you—wonderful, joyous news for all people. 11 Your savior is born today in David’s city. He is Christ the Lord. 12 This is a sign for you: you will find a newborn baby wrapped snugly and lying in a manger.” 13 Then a great assembly of the heavenly forces was with the angel praising God. They said, 14 “Glory to God in heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors.”

15 When the angels returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go right now to Bethlehem and see what’s happened. Let’s confirm what the Lord has revealed to us.” 16 They went quickly and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they reported what they had been told about this child. 18 Everyone who heard it was amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19 Mary committed these things to memory and considered them carefully. 20 The shepherds returned home, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. Everything happened just as they had been told.

So, Joseph made his way by foot and donkey from Nazareth to Bethlehem a distance of about 90 miles. Not in a hurry.

Mary takes time to wrap Jesus snugly in his blanket, and later spends time in reflection, pondering things in her heart. Not in a hurry.

The angels manifest in the sky and have a choir practice to announce the good news. Not in a hurry.

Later in the story, actually about two years later, the wise men show up with their Christmas presents. Definitely not in a hurry!

So who was in a hurry? The shepherds. “Let’s go RIGHT NOW to see what’s happened. And they went QUICKLY and found the baby laying in a manger.”

But don’t miss the point: they left their WORK to rush into Jesus’ presence. 

Maybe we could do the same today. In the midst of our holiday hustle and tasks, we could stop and leave our work. We could slow down long enough to hurry in another direction. We could put our activities on hold so we might quietly meet with our Lord. We could be settled and silent in the presence of Jesus.

As a result we just might discover an unhurried holiday: a season that will strengthen us spiritually instead of sapping our energy and joy. If we strip away all the extra stuff, maybe we will find ourselves in Jesus’ presence.

So in this moment, unhurry yourself and sit in Jesus’ presence. Breathe in the essence of peace and exhale out all your anxiety. May God bless us, everyone.

Merry Christmas!

Advent Wreath by Becca Ziegler

The Servant

Posted on by Betsy

My email is filled this morning with “last minute Christmas gift ideas” and I am mentally doing a gift checklist to see if I need anything last minute. In six days it will all be over and our selections, for better or for worse, will be revealed and we’ll know whether or not we got a hit or a miss.

We’ve been blessed with family this weekend and stories of unusual Christmas presents were shared. I had to laugh when my husband confessed to everyone that he had a miss the first Christmas after we got married. He had even gone to three stores to buy it! I still can’t imagine what possessed him to get me a bacon press, and he can’t remember why he was so sure it was exactly what I wanted. It made a great door stop, though.

In our countdown to Christmas readings this week, we will consider the best Christmas gift the world ever received from Mary’s perspective. I am always amazed to think about how young she was and how unstartled she was at this extremely startling pronouncement:

Luke 1 (Common English Bible)

26 When Elizabeth was six months pregnant, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a city in Galilee, 27 to a virgin who was engaged to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David’s house. The virgin’s name was Mary.28 When the angel came to her, he said, “Rejoice, favored one! The Lord is with you!” 29 She was confused by these words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 The angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Mary. God is honoring you. 31 Look! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be great and he will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of David his father. 33 He will rule over Jacob’s house forever, and there will be no end to his kingdom.”

Can you imagine what it would be like to be visited by an angel? What do they even look like? Of course Mary was confused! But I love that the angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Mary. God is honoring you.” Indeed, “don’t be afraid” is often the way angels greet people. I’m not sure that would work for me, as I would probably be lying unconscious on the floor after having fainted, so I would miss the whole “don’t be afraid” part.

34 Then Mary said to the angel, “How will this happen since I haven’t had sexual relations with a man?”

35 The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come over you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the one who is to be born will be holy. He will be called God’s Son. 36 Look, even in her old age, your relative Elizabeth has conceived a son. This woman who was labeled ‘unable to conceive’ is now six months pregnant. 37 Nothing is impossible for God.”

Young Mary received comfort from her cousin’s miraculous pregnancy to help her negotiate her own. The normalization of extraordinary conceptions now ran in their family and probably helped both women accept that they had been favored by God, and they would be all right. The angel spoke an important truth that day: Nothing is impossible for God.

What impossible thing are you up against today? What kind of miraculous intervention do you need right now? If an angel were to appear to you in this moment, what news would you hope for?

38 Then Mary said, “I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be with me just as you have said.” Then the angel left her.

Mary’s example of servanthood is legendary. When God calls us to do an important, wonderful, strange, and impossible task for him, this is how we should respond as well.

Are you feeling up against it today? You are God’s favored one. Nothing is impossible with God.

Favored Ones by Michelle Robertson