To See the Star - December 22
Today’s Readings - Psalm 61, 62; Zeph. 3:14-20; Titus 1:1-16; Luke 1:1-25
When Stan and I found out we were pregnant I think I must have felt like Zechariah when he discovered he and Elizabeth were pregnant. I had about given up. We had been trying for several years and like Elizabeth, I was way past the age when most women are able to become pregnant. This was my fourth child and Stan’s first. The odds were most certainly against us. But somehow, I never gave up believing that Stan would have his own child. He had been an amazing stepdad, and I knew he’d make an even more amazing father. When I first found out I wondered if the test results were correct, if there had been some mistake. Could this be true?! I tend to protect myself, expecting the worst and being delighted when I’m proven wrong.
After the second test came back and we were certain we were pregnant, we were beyond excited. We couldn’t wait to share the good news with our friends and family. I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for Zechariah not to be able to tell anyone. Even a righteous person, a person of faith can become doubtful, can lose his faith, even if just for a moment.
This can happen to anyone. It seems when the space between us and the divine is especially thin, when we’re the closest to God, it’s easiest to lose hope, to lose patience, to believe we’re not deserving or become convinced we’re not one of the ones upon which God looks “favourably.” When I was a runner, it seems it was always when I was closest to the end of a marathon that I would begin doubting I could finish; that was when I needed the pep talks the most.
The mystery of the incarnation, the mystery of God’s divine intervention into our lives is easy to dismiss, to stare into the eyes of God’s messengers and doubt. It’s in those moments of the “Epiphany,” when we see the “star” that we are most closely connected to our loving creator; connected in ways that circumvent rational thought and logic - moments that skip over reason and common sense, calling us back to the holy stable, back to the belief that God came to us in the form of a helpless babe simply to be able to touch us, to surrounds us with God’s love. The challenge is to stay attentive and open to the mystery of the divine, to disengage our protective armor and allow ourselves to be vulnerable so as not to miss one single magical moment. Our world has experienced a great deal of pain in the past year; it would be understandable to begin to lose faith, but don’t, the light is just over the horizon. In these final days of Advent may you be blessed with wonder, faith and the eyes of a child so that you might see the light of Christ as it dawns upon the world.
Faithfully,
Sally+
Reflection and Challenge - Over these last twelve months, has anything caused you to lose faith? to have doubts? What was it and how might you see it or experience it in a different way?