Pam's Perambulation

Known and Loved – Day 20

•December 20, 2012 • 4 Comments

Before our youngest son was born, we had two possible names for a boy (plus one for a girl as we didn’t know what we were expecting). We really couldn’t decide between the two, so decided that we needed to see him, before we decided which to choose. He was known and loved before he was born, but we wanted to see him in the flesh, to get a feel for him and get to know him, before committing ourself to naming him.

God has always known our name. He knew us well enough to name us before we were born. He loves us so much – do we realise that in our lives?

I had very precarious pregnancies, so I guess we were even more aware of the preciousness of life – and these lives especially. But as I consider the depth of my love for those lives, it gives me but a glimpse of the enormity of God’s love for me. I could only dream of what my babies might be – though I’ve rarely been disappointed. God knows everything there is to know about me – and loves me entirely. God knew me from the minute I was conceived, and will know me to the day I die – and all the while goes on loving me. When I disappoint him, when I let him (and myself) down, when I get things spectacularly wrong – he keeps on loving me.

Isaiah 49:1-2

49 Everyone, listen,

even you foreign nations
across the sea.
The Lord chose me
and gave me a name
before I was born.
²He made my words pierce
like a sharp sword
or a pointed arrow;
he kept me safely hidden
in the palm of his hand.

Jeremiah 1:4-5

⁴The Lord said:

⁵“Jeremiah, I am your Creator,
and before you were born,
I chose you to speak for me
to the nations.”

I guess the question for me, is will I allow his love to touch me? Can I let my hard exterior down, to risk allowing him to reach me, and do his work of love. Allowing yourself to be loved, is opening yourself up, making yourself vulnerable – but it is the only way God can get in. Whatever our experiences of human love have been, God’s love is perfect, the love of the one who created us. His love is the one that fully completes us, if we let it.

Lord,

may I allow your love

to fill my emptiness,

heal my brokenness,

fill my empty places.

May I know the depth of your love

deep within,

in the places that hurt,

in the bits that feel unlovely,

in the parts that feel worthless,

and the things in me that others have rejected.

Thank you for loving me

This year for Advent, some friends and I are using Advent and Christmas Wisdom from Henri J. M. Nouwen. You’re welcome to join us on this journey. Feel free to comment here, or on Twitter using #adventbookclub

Also blogging on the #adventbookclub are:

http://www.likeasthehart.me.uk/

http://drbexl.co.uk/

http://clairemaxim1.wordpress.com/

http://runninglife.wordpress.com/

http://dorothy726blog.wordpress.com/

Posted in Advent, Advent Book Club, faith, God, love, Religion, theology
Tags: #adventbookclub, Advent, Henri Nouwen, Isaiah 49:1-2, Jeremiah 1:4-4, love

Are you Ready? – Day 19

•December 19, 2012 • 1 Comment

There is so much to do, so much to get ready.

Before the decorations go up, cleaning needs to be done; before Christmas dinner can be cooked, someone has to buy it; before we can enjoy unwrapping presents, they have to be wrapped. So much to get ready, our time can be taken up.

But are we truly ready?

Our our hearts ready for Jesus? Are we ready to receive him? Have we made a place in our hearts and live where he can be born anew? For that is what Advent is really for, to get ourselves ready, to be open and receptive to what he is going to do in our lives.

The externals of Christmas are lovely – but they are not what is truly important. Have we taken as much care with preparing our lives as we have our homes?

Amidst the busyness, the stress, the illness that seems to be going around, can we focus on God? Can we pray the final verse of O Little Town of Bethlehem?

O holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us, we pray!
Cast out our sin and enter in,
Be born in us to-day.
We hear the Christmas angels,
The great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Emmanuel!

Are you ready? For Jesus to come? For God to dwell in you?

1 Peter 1:22-23

²²You obeyed the truth, and your souls were made pure. Now you sincerely love each other. But you must keep on loving with all your heart. ²³Do this because God has given you new birth by his message that lives on forever.

This year for Advent, some friends and I are using Advent and Christmas Wisdom from Henri J. M. Nouwen. You’re welcome to join us on this journey. Feel free to comment here, or on Twitter using #adventbookclub

Also blogging on the #adventbookclub are:

http://www.likeasthehart.me.uk/

http://drbexl.co.uk/

http://clairemaxim1.wordpress.com/

http://runninglife.wordpress.com/

http://dorothy726blog.wordpress.com/

Posted in Advent, Advent Book Club, faith, God, Jesus, Religion, theology
Tags: #adventbookclub, 1 Peter 1:22-23, Advent, Henri Nouwen, preparation

Power-full? – Day 18

•December 18, 2012 • 1 Comment

The Throne Room In Byzantium

Power? I don’t have any power?

I was shaking my head at Henri Nouwen’s reading for today, wondering if Christian leaders really do have power and misuse it. I guess historically maybe they have, and examples cited do show an arrogance and wrong use of control and influence. But what has that got to do with me today on my Advent journey?

And then I got to the last paragraph,

Maybe that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God, than love God, easier to control people than love people…

Wow! OK, now that makes it personal. That needs some thinking through.

The power, as we remind ourselves every time we say The Lord’s Prayer, is God’s and God’s alone. We should be looking, not for his power, not to control others, but to love and care. In controlling others we might miss so much that they have to share.

Philippians 2:4-8

⁴Care about them as much as you care about yourselves ⁵and think the same way that Christ Jesus thought:

⁶Christ was truly God.
But he did not try to remain
equal with God.
⁷Instead he gave up everything
and became a slave,
when he became
like one of us.

⁸Christ was humble.
He obeyed God
and even died
on a cross.

For God power is not about bully boy tactics, not about control – but about humility, serving and sacrifice.

If we are trying to control things and people, perhaps we have to ask ourselves, why? What is in me that I need to boss and manipulate?

And do I really have to give up expecting others to drive as I wish?!?

Lord,

you know how much I like to control things,

as I come before you today,

I pray that you will free me from that,

allow me to accept,

allow me to receive.

May I live

in humility,

in frailty,

in service,

in and through your love.

This year for Advent, some friends and I are using Advent and Christmas Wisdom from Henri J. M. Nouwen. You’re welcome to join us on this journey. Feel free to comment here, or on Twitter using #adventbookclub

Also blogging on the #adventbookclub are:

http://www.likeasthehart.me.uk/

http://drbexl.co.uk/

http://clairemaxim1.wordpress.com/

http://runninglife.wordpress.com/

http://dorothy726blog.wordpress.com/