Daily Readings.
Reflection by Sheila Burton, a parishioner.
I love Christmas. Love love love it. As a kid, I loved it
for all the regular reasons. Santa Claus, decorations, Christmas cookies, and
of course presents. Now, as an adult, I still love all those things, but my
focus is different.
It is the first week of Advent, a time to begin to ponder
what is to come: the Incarnation.
I may be thinking a little contrary to teaching here, but
for me, Christmas, the Incarnation, has been the holiday that has truly wowed
me and brought me to my knees. I know Easter is suppose to be the holiday to do
that, but for me, when I contemplate the Incarnation, it makes me want to cry. God loved us so much. He knew we didn’t get
it. He knew we didn’t understand the immensity of His love, or the fact that He
was really with us. He wanted us to know, to understand. He wanted us to know
that His love was bigger than everything. But how could He get us to
understand??
Imagine if you will the thought processes of God. First,
generation after generation of his beloved children cluelessly misunderstanding
who He is and how much He loves them, getting it all wrong as they strive for
power and trample on each other, not understanding that God is in their midst.
Imagine His anguish, sadness and frustration as He tries to figure out a way to
make human-kind understand this, to understand Him and what His love and
presence mean for the world.
Imagine a love so great that He who is strong is willing to
become weak. Imagine a love so huge that He who is all powerful is willing to
be the servant of all. Our God is so compassionate that He is willing to be
born in a barn to a couple of teenagers, just so we will understand that the
world is not as it seems, that God is truly present, with us and loves us more
than we can possibly imagine. Just who is this God of ours? It is hard to comprehend love of such depth,
let alone realize its focus is us. It is so humbling and beautiful it makes me
want to cry.
The Incarnation. The first Christmas. The gift that beats
all others.
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