Saturday, December 30th Trevor Ward
The Love In-Between
If you are reading this then that means you made it through to the end of our Advent Seasonal Devotional. I’m so thankful that you did.
Usually at this point in the season most of the presents have been exchanged, the songs have been sung, the food has been eaten, and the gatherings have all taken place. Finally, that feeling of checking off all the lists of to-dos starts to set in. The hurried moments begin to fade into a calm that follows the storm of all that is Christmas. I remember growing up that this was the week we got to play with all our new toys, and wear all of our new clothes. It was, however, different from all the weeks that led up to Christmas. There was always this thought of, “Well what do we do now?” Guess I need to start thinking about my new year’s resolutions again.
Perhaps, like many others, you are wondering when it’s appropriate to start taking down the decorations… or… if you are like me then you are trying to reason with the people in your household about why you should keep them up through the end of January holding onto that holiday feeling. I love this time of the season though, because it feels like all the bluster has dwindled and a simple contentment is finally setting in. Isn’t it interesting how quickly things change from one moment to the next? We were just running around in preparation mode. Cooking, cleaning, buying, wrapping, hosting, coming, going, and now things are just settling. Things feel simpler for a moment.
It reminds me so much of when we brought our daughter, Birdy into the world. It was a season of major preparation. We were taking pictures, traveling for baby showers, and setting everything up to welcome our baby girl. Then came the morning of her birth. I woke up to Katy letting me know she had been having contractions since 5 am that morning. Such a kind wife that lets me sleep in until 7am to let me know that today was the day it was all happening. I immediately shot out of bed and had that feeling of preparation for the big moment to arrive. We packed up everything, called our families then headed to the hospital. Lots of anticipation and waiting for the moment. Then comes the delivery. There are waves of excitement and nervousness. Deep breaths. Push. There’s a head. Push. Baby is here. Woooooooow….what do I say? What do we do? I’ve never done this before. Wait, you’re leaving us alone with her already? She is so fragile. Everything has been building up to this moment….so now what? They move us to a new room. It’s dark. Mom is exhausted. Everything is quiet, calm. We hold her in awe close to our chest, and even closer to our hearts.
The Hope of her long-awaited arrival reveals a contentment greater than we knew we could experience. The peace of her presence brought so much calm and quiet to the room. The joy of holding this gift overflowed in us to replenish our sleep deprived bodies. And the love wrapped up in a single human being caused our hearts to grow to a size we couldn’t have imagined.
That’s the story of Advent. That’s the story of humanity. Waiting for so long for a light to illuminate the darkness. Waiting in Hope that things could be different. Waiting for Peace to exchange the anxiety of our souls. Waiting for deep Joy that ignites a passion for life again. Waiting for Love to come in a way we could never deserve or imagine. When Christ was born into this world it finally brought the world into the reality of what could now be possible. Yes, like my own daughter, this child was born unto Mary and Joseph, but different than my own this Child was born unto us, the entire world. Emmanuel, God with us, the Prince of Peace. He was the gift we could never deserve or earn. He was the gift we couldn’t live without. He was the gift that we always needed, and we had long been awaiting.
After it’s all said and done we wonder, “What now? What do we do with the gift of the Savior?” I think that we do with it what we did with our newborn daughter.
We nurture it. We carry it. We make room for it in our hearts and lives. We see it grow into all it was meant for. That is exactly what we do with the gift of the Savior. We receive Him into our hearts and homes. We allow Him to become the center of our lives. We learn that the Father has entrusted us with a gift so special that there is nothing left to do but love. Love Jesus. Love everything about Him. Let Him show you what love is all about. Like how there is plenty of love to go around. Like how to not withhold the love that comes so freely from Him. Like how sometimes love is more than enough if you let it be. Maybe this in-between time is a time for us to gather our thoughts and look to the New Year as an opportunity to Walk in a deeper, more intentional Love, to show love more sacrificially than we have, to grow in love for God, and ultimately do that by resting in the God’s love for us.
Have you done that this season? Maybe this day you can talk to Jesus about how you can best walk in love as you step into this new year as Christ leads you by His love.
Prayer:
Show me how to rest in your love for me. Wrap me up in your embrace. Increase my hearts’ capacity to love you and the world you created. In Jesus name, Amen.
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