STOP AND CONSIDER

“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in Him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”  (Romans 15:13 NLT)

One of the more puzzling and abnormal aspects of the Christmas season, at least to me, is that people seem to be over scheduled. Just try to put together a meeting or work on a project in December, and people have a ready response: “I’m just swamped getting ready for Christmas,” they say. “Let’s do that after the holidays.” I hear this from people who are church members as well as from people who are not. Apparently, Christmas is an equal opportunity exhauster.

Maybe people feel that way because we have not collectively done Advent well. Advent is supposed to be a time of waiting, reflection, and penitence. It is a time for us to sort through what is most important as we prepare for the coming of Christ. Rather than rushing around, Advent calls us to stop and consider who we are and what we are to be about. 

-- Robert Kaylor in “Come to the Manger” 

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CONSIDER THE LILIES

“Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing… Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.’”  (Luke 12:22,23,27 NRSV)

As we go through life, each of us is taking a notebook of memories, whether we put our notes on paper, or only on the pages of our mind. As we write, it is important that we note down some little things each day for that time when those notes may be our highest joy. So note the day the lilacs bloomed, the day your little son picked a dandelion for you, the day the bluebirds found the house you made for them. In this age of bigness, the big things will crush us if we forget the words of Christ who said to consider the lilies of the field, and do not worry.

-- Unknown, from a church bulletin

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