Christmas is over. Not just Christmas Eve and Christmas Day... but all 12 days! The stores are now filled with pink hearts pointing us toward the next holiday on the calnedar. So has the time passed for Christmas conversations to be part of our dialogue? Not a chance! The conversations that flow out of Christmas and the truth of Jesus' birth and its consequences cannot be collapsed or condensed into a day or week or month-long celebration. It's our life!
I am sitting in the mall food-court as I write this. By far this is my favorite part of the mall, and it's not because of the food. It's because of the people. As I write this there are the same mall employees that I see every week wiping off tables and sweeping up crumbs. There are kids being kids on the indoor playground while parents sit and watch- some on their cell-phones, some on their hands and knees joining in the fun. There are people standing in line waiting for food. There are people on the other side of the counter preparing and serving the food. There are three old men sitting at a table drinking coffee, there arethree younger men wearing clothes that mark them as a road crew, there's two kids seat-belted into their stroller and bundled in their winter gear. How do you think these people view time? Right now in this food court in Fargo on a Tuesday afternoon, how do they view time? Each a little differently, maybe? The kids in the stroller different then the employee on a break. The Taco John taco-makers different than the three guys who are headed back outside to work (today's wind-chill is about 35 below).
Day 19 gets us thinking about time. Time is precious in the busy days leading up to Christmas but in our world of multi-tasking and filled calendars, time is always important and on our minds. The author (Ryan) praises us for using a portion of our time to grow in our faith through the Conversation. He also asks us to consider how God considers time and gives us some hints about the answer. God acts at the right time. Right now we can see the gifts that God has given to us and we can enjoy them and we can celebrate. Our relationship with God is not just something to use when we die, it gives us a new way to live each day. A verse that I am keeping close this week in preparation for this week's message is John 5:24; Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life... at that point you have passed from death to life. Think about time in a new way, your days are already eternally linked to God. In Christ your life has an eternal quality already now at this moment. Our Christmas conversation says life will never be the same.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment