How is your decorating coming? Do you have enough room for your Christmas tree, your wreaths and garlands and Christmas knickknacks? Or do you have to make room by moving chairs, tables, and your everyday "stuff" out of the way? Are the presents wrapped and ready to go in the mail or under the tree? How many parties involve bringing goodies? Are the stockings hung over the chimney with care?
Am I touching a nerve in your busy, perhaps frantic schedule?
These are not the most important questions of course. The bigger, more significant questions are: "Have you made room for Jesus in your days - in your space - in your schedule? Where do you squeeze him in? Will you fling wide your front door if you open it and there he stands?"
Old Testament prophets speak to us when they promise: The Lord is already in our midst (Zephaniah 3: 14-20) and the Lord will bring us back home for a great family gathering (Isaiah 12: 1-6). How do we respond to these promises? If the corners of our rooms and hearts and minds are too full, will we have to look for Jesus out back in our sheds or between the cobwebbed baskets/tools/recycle in the garage? Do we even recognize our Lord in our midst?
Our home is more than our space and the things that fill up our space, no matter the size of our spaces. Our home is where God is - wherever and whenever we continue to nurture our relationship with Jesus. So, both prophets Zephaniah and Isaiah encourage us to make room, recognize, and welcome our Lord. Because they lived before the birth of Jesus, they're projecting their hopes, which we find realized and incarnated in Jesus the Christ.
Let us join them when we sing, shout, rejoice, exult, celebrate, raise the rafters with our joy, and proclaim the Lord's name with all that we do and share and serve through this season of thanksgiving for the birth of the Babe, who enters into the very real humanity of our lives - God with us - Emmanuel.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Shelleyhttp://bible.oremus.org/?ql=222333236
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