esmaspäev, detsember 06, 2004
Rooted in the Past, Prepared for This Moment
Each day I've been reading from an Advent devotional by Walter Wangerin, Jr. Called Preparing for Jesus. I read a few days ago about God's faithfulness to Zechariah (Luke 1:5-7) and it really stuck with me, so I thought I would share an excerpt:
"Every present moment is well-rooted in the past. Nothing happens in pure isolation. No human is so alienated that he has no history or so lonesome that she cannot find lifelines through which her person has emerged. We are never only I. We are always, somehow, we.
"Even the miracles of God, so sudden-seeming, have been nurtured in love through the ages to the moment of their appearing. But it may be only in the appearing that God's careful tending of this thing is made clear to us.
"God, you see, is God of history: weaving its past and future together; designing the times by overseeing the intricate patterns of human events; granting meaning to the whole of humankind, and thereby making any single moment, also, incandescent with meaning ...
"So her you are, my friend--this year, this day, this particular moment--bowed down in meditations and preparing for the coming of the Lord. This tick in your Advent clock: how insignificant it seems in the order of things, yes?
"But it isn't--and you are not--insignificant at all! Surely you have taken the lesson of these verses: how vast and complex is the history that brings you to this moment! How countless the divine preparations that presently shape your meditation! Not only do you, your personhood, your self, derive from the bloodlines of your ancestors; not only does the more immediate history of your culture shape your days and ways; but the flower of this moment has a root as deep in antiquity as the time when God spoke promises to Abraham and Sarah. and its sunshine is Christ! For the birth of that light into the world (an event midway between Abraham and you) illumines all our human history, making this particular moment, too, incandescent with meaning.
"Did you think that you were little in the universe? Ah, but look how God has used the universe to bring you here. Like any miracle of God, you have been nurtured in love through all the ages until this instant, this breath you now are drawing, this present beating of your heart, this thought, this faith, this prayer ..."
--Tim
Today we prayed for my nephew, Bryan Kelly. "Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught." Colossians 2:7, NLT
"Every present moment is well-rooted in the past. Nothing happens in pure isolation. No human is so alienated that he has no history or so lonesome that she cannot find lifelines through which her person has emerged. We are never only I. We are always, somehow, we.
"Even the miracles of God, so sudden-seeming, have been nurtured in love through the ages to the moment of their appearing. But it may be only in the appearing that God's careful tending of this thing is made clear to us.
"God, you see, is God of history: weaving its past and future together; designing the times by overseeing the intricate patterns of human events; granting meaning to the whole of humankind, and thereby making any single moment, also, incandescent with meaning ...
"So her you are, my friend--this year, this day, this particular moment--bowed down in meditations and preparing for the coming of the Lord. This tick in your Advent clock: how insignificant it seems in the order of things, yes?
"But it isn't--and you are not--insignificant at all! Surely you have taken the lesson of these verses: how vast and complex is the history that brings you to this moment! How countless the divine preparations that presently shape your meditation! Not only do you, your personhood, your self, derive from the bloodlines of your ancestors; not only does the more immediate history of your culture shape your days and ways; but the flower of this moment has a root as deep in antiquity as the time when God spoke promises to Abraham and Sarah. and its sunshine is Christ! For the birth of that light into the world (an event midway between Abraham and you) illumines all our human history, making this particular moment, too, incandescent with meaning.
"Did you think that you were little in the universe? Ah, but look how God has used the universe to bring you here. Like any miracle of God, you have been nurtured in love through all the ages until this instant, this breath you now are drawing, this present beating of your heart, this thought, this faith, this prayer ..."
--Tim
Today we prayed for my nephew, Bryan Kelly. "Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught." Colossians 2:7, NLT
