A Sign will be given you…a baby…
Carla Mae Streeter, OP, Promoter of Preaching
What?!
A baby??? A baby is the long-awaited sign of God’s answer to millions
of prayers for a redeemer…for thousands of years? Yes. And come to think
of it, how ingenious. Not
lightning from Mt. Saini, not a warrior on a white stallion, not even a
powerful prophet thundering words of warning. A baby…a baby as a sign
of God.
What
newness might grasp us as we gaze at the crib? What might we see that
we haven’t noticed before? If this baby is the visible sign of the
invisible God, we need to take a long,
loving look.
This
child is the bridge, the restored link between the Divine and our
humanness. This baby, wanting to play patty-cake on my cheeks until I
scoop it up and cover it with kisses…is
this the peek-a-boo God who knows just how to get a rise out of me? A
rise out of its mother? An anonymous writer put it this way…
“The soul’s prayer of union is something like a baby in its mother’s arms. Eagerly it lets itself be gathered
up into her outstretched arms, curling itself up to be cuddled at her
breast. The mother clasps it, glues
it, so to speak, to herself…kisses it. Her darling, won by caresses,
concurs in this union. It clings to her, presses as hard as it can
against her, against her face, as though it meant to bury, to hide
itself in its mother, creating a union, a state to which
mother and child each contribute. The little one does what it can,
tries hard to join itself to its mother by its tiny efforts. The Lord
does to the soul what the mother does to the child. The soul, captivated
by the delights of these favors, not only assents,
not only yields to the union God affords. With all its might, it acts
in concert, striving to join itself and cling ever closer to the divine
goodness.”
Yes, a baby. A sign has been given to us…
You knew.
You knew exactly how to get to me.
Pudgy hands playing patty-cake on my cheeks.
Your toothless giggle rising up as I peek from behind your smiling mother.
Yes. I get your message. Yes. I read your sign.
Healing, forgiveness, restoration, mercy…all in the love-bundle that is a baby.
Thanks to associate Jean Gfall for these reflections
December 4, 2016 – Second Sunday of Advent – IS 11:1-10 – ROM 15:4-9 – MT 3:1-12
MORE THAN WE CAN ASK OR IMAGINE
John’s
message, as hell fire and brimstone as it was (even as he announced
this new thing God was doing) set up a contrast to what would come
beyond him. It set people to thinking. The election has set many of us
to thinking, wondering what in the world is going on. But we trust that
in God’s big picture, something is, even if it’s
only to set more of us to thinking. That’s how God works, of course, in
ways we wouldn’t think to ask or imagine. So it is. So it has always
been….and, thank God, so it will always be. Don’t you think?
December 11 – Third Sunday of Advent – IS 35:1-6A, 10 – JAS 5:7-10 – MT 11:2-11
IT’S HARD TO BE “LEAST”
One
of the hardest things for me to be – and to admit to being – is
“least.” How about you? I really like to be listened to as though I have
some authority because of my vast knowledge
and expertise. I don’t know about you but I LOVE it when someone
searches me out because they believe (and often then, so do I) that I
know more about some topic than many others. Anyone that wants to
compliment me is certainly welcome to do so because it
makes me feel really good!
Then
I read these words and find that it’s the PARCHED land that will bloom.
It’s being patient and waiting to see what God will do that brings life
rather than the instant gratification
of knowing and being known. I guess I don’t have to like being least
but clearly I’m going to have to get used to it because it’s at the
bottom of the heap where we see God face to face. I don’t want to miss
it!
December 18 – Fourth Sunday of Advent – IS 7:10-14 – ROM 1:1-7– MT 1:18-24
CALLED TO BE HOLY
We’ve
heard Mary’s story of her willingness to bear a child that could have
left her in shame. We’re told that Joseph said “it came to him in a
dream” that he should still marry
her and he did. Not an easy place for either of them. But, like you and
me, they were called to be HOLY and they did their best. We talk about
being holy or at least what it means to be holy, but what does that
really mean? Most of the time we just say it,
assuming we know what “holy” is. I wasn’t sure I did so I looked it up.
It means morally and spiritually excellent. Hmmmm….. Mary and Joseph
had their own challenges. We have a whole different set of challenges in
this time and place. How will we find our
way into being holy today, I wonder.
December 25 – The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas)
– IS 62:11-12
–
TI 3:4-7 – LK 2:15-20
WHAT MIRACLE NEXT?
So
this day we celebrate the birth of a child, Jesus of Nazareth, that
would change the world forever. I sincerely doubt that my birthday will
ever be celebrated much beyond my
family and friends, although some people’s are. Yet, I believe that on
December 7, 1948, my parents believed they witnessed a miracle as I came
to them safe and secure, unharmed by my journey into this world. We see
miracles so often that we miss them, be
it the birth of a child or the last breath of one who has brought us
into this world and now leaves it for another. But the kindness and
generous love of God is forever giving us one miracle after another.
This day, in particular, reminds us to keep our eyes
and our hearts wide open lest we miss even one small one.
Blessings on this day when we celebrate
the God of Endless Miracles.
