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| Let your light so shine ... Liberty Springs PCA |
These words instruct ... stop, listen, question, rest here.
I want to know the narratives. I want to see the hope, the worries, the trustings of these long-ago journey mates. And then I want to hear my Gabriels, God's messenger to me ... What are my hopes, my worries, and my trustings that these holy words speak to.
Is this want possibly the best gift I can bring to the Christ child this Christmas?
Luci Shaw testifies in her intro to Sally Breedlove's book Choosing Rest, "I am a poet, and an idea for a poem may well occur to me on the fly ... to follow that image into the heart of truth, to wait for the Spirit that speaks ... requires quiet, undeviating focus, to listen for the Spirit's voice, to pay attention to the creation and the Creator ..." (page 8)
Sounds like considering, treasuring, wondering, pondering. Yes, this is the gift I want to offer this Christmas.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer uses Mary's pondering to speak of how we should read the Bible, "One cannot simply read the Bible, like other books. One must be prepared really to enquire of it. Only thus will it reveal itself ... we do not grasp the words of someone we love by taking them to bits, but by simply receiving them ... (letting them) linger in our minds, simply because they are the words of a person we love;" (page 136, parentheses mine)
Enquire, receive, linger, more synonyms. I especially respond to linger. Lingering is what I enjoy with a friend at a favorite coffee shop. Hmm, lingering with God ... I feel the desire.
My friend Janine often says about a scripture portion we're reading together, "I need to sit with this". Husband Bill encourages, "Put it in you pocket and think about it".
I remember the 8 hour trip from Illinois to Minnesota that long ago Thanksgiving with our two littles securely strapped in their carseats behind us. And I remember the questions, the many, many questions! Littles inquiring, wondering, wanting to understand. And this mommy getting pretty tired of the conversation.How different from God who welcomes, who desires, who loves our ponderings, our wonderings, and our treasurings, and even our questionings.
Yes, this is my gift.
What about you? What does pondering and considering look like for you? How has practicing these disciplines enriched your times with God? Which of all the words above communicates best to you? Why?
Children teach us so much about wonder. I love this picture of my oldest GRAND, Jack when he was 3 years old seeing a rainbow for the first time.
This little guy, the first GRAND of my good friend experiencing snow for the very first time. Ahh, wonder.
"But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart." Luke 2:19
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