The four-week Advent journey to the manger in Bethlehem is almost over. We offer you this daily devotional guide, sent weekly, to bless your personal devotional and prayer time. May your Advent be richly blessed.
Monday Devotional Meditation
From The Journey by Adam Hamilton, which is our 2019 Advent Book Study.
In the fall of 2010, I [Adam Hamilton] retraced the journey of Mary and Joseph by following the most direct route from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Along the way I was struck by how difficult the journey must have been for Mary, and how disappointing.
Like Mary, all of us find ourselves forced to take journeys we do not wish to make. These journeys are not prescribed by God, but by life's circumstances, or the will of others. In the midst of them, we may be disappointed; wonder if we've been abandoned by God; or simply feel confused as to why we've had to travel such roads. Perhaps Mary felt some of these same emotions on the journey to Bethlehem.
But here's what we find in Scripture and what is echoed in our own lives: God does not abandon us while we're on these journeys. Somehow, in ways we never anticipated, God even works through them. We look back years later and can see how God took adversity, disappointment, and pain and used these very things to accomplish Divine purposes.
Ann was five months pregnant when she sensed that something was not right. After an amniocentesis, doctors diagnosed her unborn baby with a genetic condition called "Chromosome 22 ring." At the time, very few cases were known. The doctors told Ann and her husband Jerry that their child would likely be stillborn. When she asked about delivering the child early so doctors might have a chance to perform a surgery that might save his life, the doctors came back and said, "Ann, this will not be a life worth saving." Ann and Jerry would remember those words many times over the years.
Matthew was born in January 1984. Ann and Jerry chose the name Matthew because it means "gift from the Lord." Matthew was born with several serious birth defects, but he lived. This was not a journey Ann and Jerry had anticipated or would have desired to make, but it was the journey life had dealt them, and they were grateful for their son.
I first met Matthew when he was eight. His mom and dad visited our church, and out of that visit, our church started a ministry for Matthew and children like him, a special-needs ministry that we named after him: Matthew's Ministry. Later, when Matthew needed surgery, knowing he would need blood, his surgery prompted us to start an annual blood drive.
Matthew died at the age of 21. His life shaped Ann and Jerry into two of the most remarkable people I know. And Matthew changed thousands of other lives. Today over 140 special-needs children and adults are part of Matthew's Ministry. Annually in our blood drives we collect over fifteen hundred pints of blood for people in the Kansas City area. Our church and community were changed as a result of this child whose life "wasn't worth saving."
God's greatest work often arises out of the journeys we don't want to take. God has a way of wringing good from disappointment, suffering, and pain. This is what Ann and Jerry found. It is what Joseph and Mary came to see again and again. Look back over your life. Can you see how God brought good from adversity? If you are on such a journey right now, trust God to walk with you and to bring good from it.
God, thank you for the way you bring good from suffering. Please help me to remember that you promised to never leave me nor forsake me. Bring good from the adversity in my life, and grant me your peace when I take those journeys I don't want to take. Amen.
Tuesday (Christmas Eve) Questions for Reflection
Watch this very powerful final Advent message from Pastor Wes, and then consider these reflection questions.
1. As we anticipate the arrival of Jesus once again, what wars inside you must be brought to an end?
2. Where do you need to offer forgiveness and lay down the sword of being right or of being hurt?
3. Where do you need to generously offer your time and transform your calendar from a weapon to a blessing?
4. Rather than the spear of personal success, how can you use a spade to tend to someone else?
5. How will you leave the command and control of the 'military of must-ing?'
Wednesday (Christmas Day) Blessing
Jan Richardson, The Advent Door
How the Light Comes
A Blessing for Christmas Day
I cannot tell you
how the light comes.
What I know
is that it is more ancient
than imagining.
That it travels
across an astounding expanse
to reach us.
That it loves
searching out
what is hidden
what is lost
what is forgotten
or in peril
or in pain.
That it has a fondness
for the body
for finding its way
toward flesh
for tracing the edges
of form
for shining forth
through the eye,
the hand,
the heart.
I cannot tell you
how the light comes,
but that it does.
That it will.
That it works its way
into the deepest dark
that enfolds you,
though it may seem
long ages in coming
or arrive in a shape
you did not foresee.
And so
may we this day
turn ourselves toward it.
May we lift our faces
to let it find us.
May we bend our bodies
to follow the arc it makes.
May we open
and open more
and open still
to the blessed light
that comes.