Have a listen whilst you are reading the rest of this. 🙌
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGu_Sf7d468
Anyhow that isnt really what I waanted to talk about today. It just tickled me. Today I have been provoked to think about giving thanks. At this time of the year we often look back over the twelve months just gone. There are ' reviews of the year' on telly. People send us their round robin letters with their news of the year just gone. For some of us we can look back on 2016 with a smile and think that it was a pretty good year. But for others it was terrible. Someone died or lost a job or had an accident. We didnt lose the weight we had promised ourselves we were DEFINITELY going to lose this year. We lost friends or were betrayed by people close to us. We got sick and didnt get healed. Or we are just weary and a bit fed up and arent really looking forward to doing it all again in 2017.
Looking back 2000 odd years, God's people had had a pretty bad ' year'. They were occupied, oppressed and poor. They had been waiting for a Messiah for centuries and He hadn't come yet. Looking forward they could see nothing but increasing taxes, more brutal domination by the Romans, even less freedom to worship. Even the prophets had been silent for a long time. I'm sure the people were despondent and weary. I'm sure when they celebrated their feasts and gave thanks for the Passover and remembered other great acts of God, they sighed and wondered where He had gone.
And into the midst of this came Jesus.
But He came as a baby, He was here. But He didnt DO anything for thirty years!! Right at the time when the people of Israel needed a Messiah and a Saviour, He was in their midst but as a tiny baby. As a toddler . As a seven year old. As a teenager. And seemingly incognito, undercover, not doing anything to express his divinity. Not sorting it all out. Not healing people, Not delivering the oppressed. Not preaching Good News. Just being a boy growing into a man,
I do believe that throughout His childhood Jesus was perfectly fulfilling His mission and doing exactly what God required of Him. It was all part of the plan. And a crucial and necessary part. But from Israel's perspective......... well, it was almost as though He wasnt even there.
I wonder if some of us looking back at the year just gone will feel a bit like that. So where were you God? Trust me. He was there. He is here. Patience.
If it appears that He has not been massively active then perhaps we are in a time of ' infancy'. Maybe we need, like the shepherds, to look over our year and search for the clues as to what He has been doing. And when we find Him, perhaps in the small things, the kindness of strangers, the provision of an employer, the understanding of friends and the wisdom of colleagues, we need to worship Him. And then maybe we need to watch over and nurture those small God things. Because they will grow. All God things grow. It is in the nature of God, the life of the world, to constantly be growing life and light into all places where He is active.
Lord, for everyone who has had a difficult 2016, I thank you that You were there and that you have helped them to make it through. Help us to see you in the small things. so that we can have the faith to see you in the big things. Teach us to trust and to wait with thankful hearts. Help us to see that Baby Jesus is every bit as much God as King Jesus. And thank you for growing in us so that we can be confident that however little we feel we know you now, by this time next year we will have more of you in our hearts and spirits. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment