It's December 3 and I'm not sure where our bonus week went. Last week I was all relaxed and feeling ahead of the Christmas game, what with having the decorations up the day after Thanksgiving and all. Now I'm frantically searching for my bag of nativity finger puppets, a must-have for active boys' engagement in daily advent readings. I found a Mary under a chair, and my suspicions are the crew of holy characters have been conscripted into the Lego/army battle set up in the basement, or they have become victims of Nerf gun target practice. It all leaves me feeling a little disheveled.
We carried on with our advent reading this morning, despite the missing props. I found comfort in the realization that I'm not the only one feeling disheveled. The Israelites were living under Roman oppression: unable to practice their religion freely, and faced with taxation without representation. There was no Mayflower boat to carry them to a new world, so they hunkered down and waited for the savior Isaiah predicted.
The oppressed people surely had a strong picture of what this savior would be....an unbeatable warrior like Sampson, or a wise and rich king like Solomon. Their expectations were high, and rightly so. The Jewish people had experienced God's faithfulness countless times in their history. God had parted the Red Sea to facilitate their escape from Egypt. He had leveled the city of Jericho without a soldier's sword to deliver on the promise of living in a land of their own.
The Jew's expectations were so honed in on one thing, that they weren't prepared for the Savior God actually sent. They weren't willing to see a baby in a manger as their promised salvation. They were so worried with the circumstances of their world, they missed the bigger picture. Living under Roman rule was no picnic, but it was a temporary situation. God was sending the Savior of all saviors. This Savior was concerned with leading people's hearts out of slavery more than their bodies. His goal was to establish a heavenly kingdom rather than a kingdom of this world.
So no matter where you find yourself on the spectrum of disheveledness and misplaced expectations, you can be assured you're not the only one. It's not about having your props in place, lists made, and parties planned. It's about the wonderful knowledge that God is faithful and works in unexpected ways. It's our job to be on watch, so we don't miss the unexpected.
"For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end." Isaiah 9:6-7
No comments:
Post a Comment