Advent and Today

I'm peeking out the window.  It's dark outside, fresh-fallen snow crackling as William and Ethan back out of the driveway.  They're headed to a swim meet, and I sit here with my coffee and a silent house.  I love mornings.  I love the promise of a new start, and I am always grabbing onto the glorious truth that God's mercies are new every morning, GREAT is His faithfulness.    He has me thinking a lot about Jesus lately. As I read Gia her Jesus Bible Story Book and as we do our Jesse Tree for Advent (skipping days, playing catch-up, yet so grateful when we all settle into our family room and listen to the Word of God, how every story points to Jesus, points to the cross) I am overwhelmingly grateful that I am a believer, that God opened my eyes and pulled me toward himself long ago, was patient with me as I went my own way and then came back, yearning to hang tight with Him.  When Ethan was a baby, I thought I'd better get serious with God.  Really, I thought, it's time.   I went to a Bible study led by a woman who changed my life.  Her intimacy with Jesus was beautiful, her joy contagious.  I wanted that.  And God gave it to me, His gift, Jesus.  The cross.  The resurrection.  Heaven here on earth.   Immanuel, God with us.  

We went to a Christmas party last night, and I stood there and thought about all these people, so different from one another, so many stories and paths represented amongst us.   I gathered with a different group of people to pray yesterday morning and thought the same thing.  We are all so unique.   But God ties us together with threads of His love and grace, bringing us together in community and inviting us to share in one another's lives, the good times and hard ones.  He is a God who delights in being with us.  I imagine heaven will be an amazing party.   For years I would think about heaven in really odd pictures.  I would see everyone sitting in their own big mansion, alone, and every once in a while God would drop by and say hi.  How weird is that?  No, it will be togetherness and joy and laughter and intimacy with each other and with God, feasting on life as we've never known it.  So during Advent we not only wait for Christmas, we also wait for Jesus' return.   

I have written for 16 minutes, and the house is still quiet.  My heart is bursting with hope and joy for this day.  Today is a new day.   It is one day closer to Christmas.  One day closer to heaven.   So thankful His kingdom is here on earth too, His grace waking me up with hope.  My failings are being constantly covered like the fresh-fallen snow covers the tire tracks in the driveway.   God looks at me and He is pleased.  Because of Jesus, I stand before Him with boldness and sit here and rest in His love.  What will this day bring?   I do not know, but God walks before me and lights my path.  I will fall down, and He will pick me up and remind me that I am His child, His beloved.  Encountering Jesus.  That's why I love Advent.   So many reminders of Him, truth ringing loudly throughout the earth and in my heart.

Father, I love you.   Bring on the day.   Today help me to pursue peace, see joy in the simplest things and see others as You see them.   May I lay down my agenda and pick up yours.  May I lay down pride, selfishness, defeat, the I-don't-feel-like-its, and pick up YOU!  For only through You do I live and move and have my being.  In Jesus' name, Amen.