Emmanuel

Reflecting

Posted on by Betsy

This morning I sat in my chair facing the harbor and read several “our family year in review” Christmas letters sent by various friends from far and wide. I love getting these! I appreciate them not only for the ability to catch up on the year’s events, but also for the effort and time they represent. As a writer, I understand the focus that is required write these one-page summaries of the year gone by. I imagine my friends sitting at their computers with fingers hovering over keys, deciding which events to include. I can hear them calling to their spouses, “honey, what month did we go to Chattanooga?” as they reflect and reconstruct a full year’s worth of life. Births, deaths, knee replacements, trips, weddings, etc. are all condensed into a single page of family news.

I think we don’t do that enough. We get so focused on what we have to do just to get through the day and the week ahead, trying to parcel out segments of time to achieve it all, that we don’t allow ourselves the necessary activity of reflection. That is to our detriment, as reflection is a great teacher of truth.

Recently an old and dear friend asked me a question about my personal life that I had alluded to in a devotional. I found myself reflecting on how the situation evolved as I was answering his query. It was interesting for me to read my responses to him. By having the opportunity to reflect on the situation from the vantage point of today, I could see how God was with me at every step as it unfolded. The end result was acceptance and peace, but I confess that it didn’t come easily. But it did come as a result of years’ worth of prayer … not just mine, but others who prayed for me. I am grateful for his interest and grateful for the chance to revisit those emotions and disappointments and remember again how God brought me to the peace I know today.

Advent is a time for reflection. It is a time to claim God’s promises revealed through the prophets and manifested through the Christ child. It is a time to recall why we needed a Savior in the first place. It is a time to tally up the year’s events and activities and consider if we have been spending our days wisely or frivolously.

It is a time to remember.

In this ninth chapter of Isaiah, the prophet does exactly that. He remembers and then he looks ahead … not just to the present reality but to the future hope. In this passage, Isaiah recalls the darkness of the people of Israel in the present time as they were living under Assyrian oppression. He reflects on God’s amazing power in the past when Gideon defeated his oppressors at Midian. He predicts the time when all oppressors’ boots and blood-stained garments will be burned in a victory pyre:

Isaiah 9 (New International Version)

The people walking in darkness
    have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
    a light has dawned.
3 You have enlarged the nation
    and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you
    as people rejoice at the harvest,
as warriors rejoice
    when dividing the plunder.
4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,
    you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them,
    the bar across their shoulders,
    the rod of their oppressor.
5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle
    and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning,
    will be fuel for the fire.

Having thus reflected on the years behind, he looks toward the advent of the long-awaited Messiah and rejoices in the justice, righteousness, and peace that the child will bring.

6 For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given,
    and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the greatness of his government and peace
    there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
    and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
    with justice and righteousness
    from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
    will accomplish this.

As we let these words sink in today during this final week of Advent, we would do well to turn off our phones, close the laptop for a moment and REFLECT. How was your year? Have you spent your time well this last 12 months? Where did you see and encounter God? How do you want the next 12 months to go?

In the end, what God desires for us is to find peace. When we gather to celebrate the Second Coming, this is what we will finally experience as a world. The Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father will come to reign as the Prince of Peace.

May peace be yours today as you reflect, remember, and rejoice. Oh, come, oh come Emmanuel!

Reflections of Light by Michelle Robertson

Tear It Open

Posted on by Betsy

And thus, 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.

God With Us by Colin Snider

Speechless

Posted on by Betsy

This obviously is a topic I know nothing about.

Have you ever had something happen that was so profound that it rendered you speechless? Like, literally not able to make words or even syllables come out of your mouth? Yeah, me neither. But we do know that it can happen to some people when a unexpected surprise comes along suddenly and without warning.

Zachariah experienced speechlessness. Not just for a moment, but for many, many months. He received the unexpected news from an angel that he and his wife (both “long in tooth and older than the hills”) were expecting a baby. Elizabeth had waited all of her life for a child, but was barren through her child-bearing years. Now, in her geriatric phase, she was suddenly pregnant. What the heck? The news was so startling, it took her breath, and Zachariah’s voice, away:

Luke 1 (The Message)

18 Zachariah said to the angel, “Do you expect me to believe this? I’m an old man and my wife is an old woman.”

19-20 But the angel said, “I am Gabriel, the sentinel of God, sent especially to bring you this glad news. But because you won’t believe me, you’ll be unable to say a word until the day of your son’s birth. Every word I’ve spoken to you will come true on time—God’s time.”

AHA! So it was the angel who took Zachariah’s voice away! Seems a little harsh, no? In the presence of an angel, in the moment of an unbelievable proclamation, the aged priest expressed his incredulity. That seems fair and reasonable, doesn’t it?

In Matthew Henry’s commentary, he explains it simply: “His unbelief was silenced.” That simple statement helps us to see it a different way. Zachariah was a man of influence, a temple priest. Were he to use his pulpit to brag, embellish, or publicly express doubt about the whole thing, the truth of Elizabeth’s pregnancy would always remain in question. As we know, pulpit-holders are held to a higher accountability:

Titus 1 (The Message)

5-9 Appoint leaders in every town according to my instructions. As you select them, ask, “Is this man well-thought-of? Is he committed to his wife? Are his children believers? Do they respect him and stay out of trouble?” It’s important that a church leader, responsible for the affairs in God’s house, be looked up to—not pushy, not short-tempered, not a drunk, not a bully, not money-hungry.

He must welcome people, be helpful, wise, fair, reverent, have a good grip on himself, and have a good grip on the Message, knowing how to use the truth to either spur people on in knowledge or stop them in their tracks if they oppose it.

And in fact, Zachariah’s speech was not returned to him until he wrote on a tablet, “His name is John,” as the angel had instructed him to do. With this sentence he confirmed the truth of John’s miraculous conception and affirmed John’s place in the story as the one who came to prepare the way for the Messiah, who was also miraculously conceived.

Maybe you woke up this morning and had second thoughts about something. Perhaps a moment of unbelief has come upon you in a difficult situation. You may be having doubts about God’s presence in your mess. God won’t render you speechless, but he most certainly will come to you in the quietness of your contemplation in a “Be still, and know that I am God” moment.

Know today that you are in good company. All of us, at one time or another, question God’s activity and wonder what the heck is going on. We retreat into the silence of our own thoughts, seeking out the spirit and finding him there.

In times like these, it is good to remember the miracles of Christmas. Each one had to be waited for, and each came in their own time…God’s time. So in your doubt, remember to look up, look out, and look for a sign. God is here, Emmanuel, and he came to save. You can count on it.

Look up. God is here. By Becca Ziegler