“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14
There is a story of a man who lived in a small house in the forest of a large mountain with windows that were very high on the walls facing the South. One day a bird happened to fly in when the patio door was open; probably had some children from the city visiting on that day. The bird tried to leave by flying out of the clean windows and tried again and again but its efforts continued to end with a thud. The man opened the door and tried to shoo the bird in the direction of the open door but it continued to fly into the windows; losing strength and desire with each attempt. Finally, it became tired and fluttered to the floor and the man stepped to the side of the open door and the bird cautiously evacuated the house under its own power, back to the freedom of the outdoors.
This story caused me to consider all the fluttering around that many people in our country are doing at the present time trying to prepare all that ‘needs’ to be prepared for Christmas without spending time to stop and personally consider how important this Advent season is for you, me and the children attending Lutheran schools in Haiti.
The pandemic will certainly curtail some of our ‘needs’ this year but I am sure that we will find ways to spend a large amount of time preparing programs, presents, feasts, decorations, Black Friday, Techno Saturday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday, small travel plans and we lose sight of the simple, important truth about this Advent season. We continue to smack into a window when God has opened the door for us with the simple story of how He sent His Son Jesus to be born through the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem and this Christ child would live with us, die for us and redeem us from our sinful lives.
Please set aside several moments when you are fluttering during this Advent season to personally give thanks for the only reason for Advent; Christ came to earth full of grace and truth. I close today with the hymn ‘Savior of the Nations, Come’ which was written by St. Ambrose in the middle of the third century and later translated in German by Martin Luther in 1524 at the age of 41.
“Savior of the nations, come, Virgin's Son, make here Thy home! Marvel now, O heaven and earth, that the Lord chose such a birth. Not by human flesh and blood, by the Spirit of our God, was the Word of God made flesh; woman's Offspring, pure and fresh. Wondrous birth! O wondrous Child of the Virgin undefiled! Though by all the world disowned, still to be in heaven enthroned. From the Father forth He came and returneth to the same, captive leading death and hell; high the song of triumph swell! Thou, the Father's only Son, hast o'er sin the victory won. Boundless shall Thy kingdom be; when shall we its glories see? Brightly doth Thy manger shine, glorious is its light divine. Let not sin o'ercloud this light; ever be our faith thus bright. Praise to God the Father sing, praise to God the Son, our King, Praise to God the Spirit be ever and eternally.”
Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
May God be with you…Jay