Today is the last weekend before Christmas. Tomorrow is the last Sunday of Advent and then it is Christmas Day and we celebrate Jesus born as a human baby.

There has been so much going on in my life in the last few days and I am just taking this time, late in the day, to pause. Tomorrow some of my family celebrate Christmas so for me it all starts tomorrow.

What is important to think about today?

It is a message repeated most Christmases by other bloggers and one I have mentioned already this Christmas.

It is about having that still time. 

I teach mindfulness and taking the time to be aware of what you are feeling, of fears and joys, frustrations and disappointments. I encourage people to take the time to be present.

That is what I am reminding you of today.

Earlier I went out and collected my Christmas Meat Order. There were numerous people scurrying about. They were collecting massive boxes of meat, then they were off to collect massive boxes of snack foods, chocolates, cakes, bread, and the bottle shop with numerous boxes of alcohol.

Then I visited a friend in her shop and the shop was full of people buying last minute gifts for their relatives. 

They will all relax at Christmas and the focus will be on food and drink. And presents.

But that is not what the focus should be on. 

I have visited a lot of friends over the past few weeks. All the questions are around “what are you doing for Christmas”. There are those who are alone, who have estrangements in their family, who are nursing hurts over lost relationships, who are frightened of being alone at Christmas.

Christmas has become so associated with family and friends, with food, presents and alcohol that people have forgotten that Christmas is about a tiny baby born in poverty, hunted and persecuted who would eventually die for us in a horrific way.

As I said last week, the focus is on being still and acknowledging God. 

Yes it is nice to see people at Christmas. The food is lovely to be part of. Catching up with family is very pleasant. But that is not what Christmas is about.

So in all the busyness over the next few days do stop for a while and acknowledge that baby who humbled Himself to come to earth to live as one of us.

A baby whose family didn’t believe who he was and chased him to bring him back to Nazareth. A baby who endured snide comments about his paternity and legitimacy. A baby who was disbelieved. A baby who was accused of heresy despite being God. A baby who submitted to the horror of His last hours to fulfil His Father’s wishes for us.

Do stop and remember that baby at Christmas.

May God bless you richly in whatever way He knows you need at Christmas and in 2024.

My blog will take a break until 13 January. May you be still and know God throughout the coming weeks.

Psalm 46

It has happened every year lately. 

Life gets so busy towards the end of November and by the second week of December I am exhausted and usually get some sort of cold or other illness to lay me low. 

This year is no different. 

So many people I know. So many Christmas celebrations. So much reflecting on the year as it comes to an end. So many clients needing to see me before Christmas. I end up burning the candle at both ends.

I know every year it will be busy. And I go to the celebrations that I want to attend. But I am a stay at home, in bed by 9 person and an introvert. I love catching up with my friends, but 
I end up getting to bed late, exhausted. 

And I still wake up around 4 as the first light creeps into the sky and the birds burst forth in song.

I love that early time of morning. Before the earth wakes up. Before everyone is out of bed and rushing around. I get to sit quietly and reflect on God.

It is my “be still” time.

But that all ends when the rest of the house wakes up. And I am rushing again.

But this is Christmas and we are in Advent. This is the time to remember and reflect on the promised birth of the Messiah. This is the time to stop amidst the rush to celebrate and finish up at work to allow a few weeks summer break.

It would be a shame to arrive at Christmas Day and never have stopped long enough to remember what this season is all about.

It doesn’t matter when Jesus was actually born. It is the day that has been selected to remember that He was born. 

It is a time to remember that God keeps His promises. That God planned a solution to humankind’s fall from grace from the moment it happened. That God does keep promises, even when they may take millennia to be fulfilled.

It is time to stop and remember the joy of a tiny baby born impossibly in poverty to parents far from home, and for that night, homeless. A tiny baby whose family became refugees in Egypt, hiding from Herod’s desire to kill the tiny baby. A boy whose paternity was the subject of snide comments and innuendo. A boy who took on human form but was actually God the Son.

So this is a call to me and to you. “Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10a)

May you find time to be still and remember Jesus’s birth and all it has meant to all humankind.

The study of Abraham I just finished has been a great lead in to Advent.

Advent is all about waiting. Waiting in hope.

From the moment God instructed Abraham to leave his father’s household. To leave everything familiar to him. To go to a place he didn’t know. To rely completely on God’s instructions.

From that moment Abrahm was waiting in hope. Hope that God had a plan for him. Curiosity about what that was. Hope because the end of that instruction was that God would make him into a mighty nation. 

A childless man would be made into a mighty nation. Wow, that is some promise. A lot of hope, and sometimes disillusionment went into that time of waiting.

Throughout the Bible we see promises that God would send His seed to restore us to the relationship we once had with God. The one Adam and Eve broke in the garden of Eden. 

We were waiting to see a precious hope. And it was millennia in the making.

The entire history of humankind with God is one of waiting in hope. 

From Abraham waiting in hope for the promised child who would provide the nation of descendants. From David waiting for the fulfilment of the promise he would be king of Israel. From people waiting for the promised Messiah. From waiting for the end when Jesus will return.

We are always waiting in hope.

Abraham grew impatient and allowed himself to be talked into having a child with Hagar. But still God’s plan came about in God’s time and not through Hagar’s child.

People grew impatient and drew elaborate pictures of what they imagined the Messiah would be like and what He would do. And many missed His coming.

Today, people grow impatient and try to interpret the book of Revelation and adopt dangerous beliefs and behaviours based on this misinterpretation. People have even been murdered because of this misinterpretation. And still people are taken in by these lies.

Christmas is first and foremost about waiting.

Waiting for God to fulfil the promise He intends to keep IN HIS TIME.

In. His. Time.

We may think that it is logical for Jesus’ return to be now. But people have thought that since He ascended to heaven the first time.

At Christmas we remember that people waited for Jesus’ birth. They didn’t know when it would happen. It must have been hard for many to take in when He came during their lifetimes. 

For Anna and Simeon, who had waited on God’s promise that they would meet the Messiah when He came, it was a fulfilment of their lives of waiting. It was the culmination of their lives of faith.

Maybe Jesus wasn’t born on 25 December. Maybe this date is one chosen to replace a pagan festival. It doesn’t actually matter.

What matters is that we remember that Jesus was born. That His birth was the fulfilment of promises made by God over millennia. 

What matters is that we prepare our hearts to remember His birth. We prepare to rejoice at His birth. Rejoice at God’s promise fulfilled. Take heart from the fact that God did fulfil His promise. Draw strength from the fact that God’s promise of Jesus was fulfilled, and His promise of Jesus’ return will be fulfilled in His time.

Just as the early kings of Israel were instructed to read the covenant yearly to help all remember, we need to remind ourselves of Jesus’s life. We need to remember to rejoice at His birth, be saddened by His Death and rejoice at His resurrection.

This season we are in is the time to rejoice at His birth. 

Let us remind ourselves of the time of waiting in faith for the promised Messiah to be born.
 

Genesis 24 - 25:1-11

This is the last of this blog series. In this series we have followed Abraham from the time God instructed him to leave his father’s country and go to Canaan.

We have followed him as he learned to rely on God and follow him faithfully.

We have seen his loyalty and faith in God when he was prepared to sacrifice Isaac at God’s instruction.

He has withstood much testing. But now he is very old. Genesis notes that God had blessed him in every way. But Isaac was not married yet. Abraham was concerned that his son make the right marriage. He didn’t want him to marry a Canaanite woman. He considered them to be ungodly and not suitable for God’s purposes. 

Abraham calls his trusted servant and asks him to place his hand under his thigh.

In Genesis this practice is mentioned twice. First here when Abraham directs his servant to do this, and again in Jacob’s life as he approaches death. 

In the ancient world the thigh was considered to be a source of posterity. It is suggested in some texts that the thigh is a euphemism for testicles.

It is considered likely that Abraham used this method of swearing an oath because it was his seed, in other words Isaac, who would carry the blessing of God’s covenant with Abraham. It is also likely that this form of swearing was tied to Abraham having being circumcised to mark the covenant with God. One source I found said that the English word testify is directly related to the word testicles. More evidence that this was an accepted form of swearing an oath at that time.

Abraham asked his servant to swear an oath that he would go back to his own country in Ur and find Isaac a wife from his own family. The servant was worried the girl would not come with him but Abraham instructed him to never take Isaac away from Canaan. God brought Abraham out of his own country and his son was to stay in the land of Canaan.

So the servant went as Abraham had instructed him. 

As he approached the town of Nahor, where Abraham’s descendants lived, he prayed to God, asking for success in his mission. He asked God to show him the young woman. He asked that if he asked the young woman God had chosen for Isaac to get him water she would offer it to him and to his camels. He saw this as a sign of God’s blessing on this.

Immediately Rebekah came out to the well. She was of Abraham’s family and was unmarried.

As she collected water from the well, Abraham’s servant asked her for water. She gave it to him and then offered to give his camels water too.

He then took out a gold nose ring and two gold bracelets and put them on her. He tasked her who her father was and if he could stay the night. She confirmed in her answer that she was of Abraham’s family and offered him and his camels lodging and food.

The servant fell to his knees in gratitude and prayed aloud to God, thanking Him for blessing his quest.

Rebekah came and collected her brother Laban. He met the man at the house and the servant told him that he had come from Abraham. He detailed how much God had blessed Abraham with wealth and how Sarah had given him a son in his old age. He related how Abraham had sent him back to get a wife for Isaac from Abraham’s own family. He then related how Rebekah had done exactly what he had requested God to have Isaac’s wife do.

Laban and his father gave permission for the servant to take Rebekah. But the next morning Laban and Milkah (Rebekah’s mother) asked if she could stay ten days then go. 

The servant replied that he should not be detained and needed to go now. Rebekah was called and agreed to go immediately.

So Rebekah travelled to Canaan to become Isaac’s wife. 

After Sarah died Abraham took another wife who bore him 6 sons who became the fathers of many tribes who would later come into contact with the descendants of Isaac upon their return to Canaan. 

To ensure these sons were never a problem for Isaac he gave them gifts and sent them far away from Isaac.

At the age of 175 years Abraham died. Isaac and Ishmael buried in in the cave in the field Abraham had bought. He was buried next to Sarah.

Isaac was blessed by God and continued to live in the area of Canaan

The rest is another story for another time. That of Isaac’s descendants.

Now we end the story of the man God credited as righteous.