Advent 13th December

“How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation, and says to Zion, "Your God reigns!" Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices, they shout joyfully together; For they will see with their own eyes when the Lord restores Zion. Break forth, shout joyfully together, You waste places of Jerusalem; For the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has bared His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, that all the ends of the earth.” Isaiah 52:7-10

Readings

Isaiah 52:7-10,   

Luke 2:8-10
Hebrews 2: 5-9

Reflection

Do you believe in miracles? Jesus’ advent was a true miracle and the  prophet Isaiah anticipates this miracle: His appearance to dwell with us, uniting the heavenly and earthly realms. Emmanuel, "God with us," distinguishes Christianity from all other religions. God so loved the world that He gave His very best. The Advent season commemorates God's visitation to live with us. God brought heaven and earth together that Holy night, splitting the physical heavens with visible angels announcing the birth of the Saviour. Why did the announcement go first to shepherds in the "waste places" of the land? Perhaps because they didn't ask God if He was sure He knew what He was doing. Had angels appeared to theologians, they would have first consulted their commentaries. Had He gone to the elite, they would have looked around to see if anyone was watching to give them credit. Had God gone to the successful, they would have first checked their calendars. So He went to the shepherds - folks who wouldn't tell Him that angels don't sing to sheep or that messiahs aren't born in stables and laid in feed troughs. In Bethlehem the spiritual world and physical world came together, realigned. What Jesus went on to accomplish on earth makes it possible for God one day to reconcile all disharmonies between both worlds. It is no wonder a choir of angels broke out in spontaneous song, disturbing not only a few shepherds, but the entire universe. Albert Einstein said, "There are two ways to live. One is as if nothing is a miracle. The other as if everything is." The events of Christmas remind us of the truth in living according to the latter.

Prayer

Lord, inspire me to live in such a way that my choices each day and my commitment to live in a positive way may transform the negative into something positive, 

and the ordinariness of daily life into something extraordinary. Amen.