Counting

 

 

 

24 days until. There is a special-ness about marking your days, especially when you know what’s coming is good. This time of year, we count the coming (Advent means “coming” in Latin).

Is the event still exciting even when you know what’s coming?

In this case, YES….because we celebrate God’s breaking into this world.  Imagine our God saying, “It’s time to fix this.” And HE comes. Whether you say he comes down, over or through us…he arrives just as we arrived tiny and unnoticed by many (except for those who were watching and waiting).

For me, Advent is a drawing close to God. The world pulls us away, but right now we have the opportunity choose to take steps closer to Yahweh.

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. John 4:8

As we take intentional steps toward Him, we will find more and more of HIM…more love, more grace, more joy.

I pray we serve up little reminders to each other this season as we journey on this path together.  The path that leads to Christ. The path that leads to life.

 

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Awakened by a leaf.

It started with a leaf.

As I hurried to my car to get Andre to practice, this maple leaf (an Autumn Blaze to be exact) caught my eye. I grabbed it up and set it on my dashboard as I drove and thought about all things I had to remember.  Here was my highly evolved brain saying… “Pick Andre up.  The get the brownies. Take him to team dinner. Go help a friend who is moving…and oh, write that midterm paper.  I know I’m gonna forget the brownies…”

Back home, I grabbed the leaf to jump into at least a half hour of summarizing for the paper, but then, I didn’t. I didn’t go inside.

There was another leaf…

and then another…

and I found myself seeking the signs of fall.

I found myself calm and not thinking about the paper or the brownies at all. This is the magic of nature for me. I get lost in it.  And this is just my own tiny, tiny yard! Oh! The blessing of the created world.

The Japanese call that time in nature that heals ‘forest bathing’ (every time I say that my teenager, wrinkles his nose at me.  I dare not ask why). Who has time to go the forest?  I say, step outside. You might not want to call it ‘yard bathing’ though!

Yet, this only works when your lenses through which you see the world have been adjusted. That first initial leaf I picked up, adjusted my vision, just enough to help me to see.

It’s not about the to-do list or the to-be list.

Sometimes what we need most is to just BE.

Be you. Get lost in whatever it takes to make you forget the brownies.

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The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat (Psalm 19:1-6).

Time

Time is such an interesting thing.  Do you ever think about time?  I did today as I took the time do something I love. Have you taken the time lately to do what you love?