“Go, and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” (Matthew 11:4)

This time of year is filled with such imaginative opposites. We’re busy so we miss a great deal of what’s really going on in the world. And yet, it’s also a very mystical time of year where—even in the middle of the hectic pace—God makes Himself known in many, many ways.

There are school and office parties, baking, cooking, shopping, schedules, sharing of cookies and gifts, decorating, and well, a little more shopping. Life goes on during all this. Work still has to be done. Schedules of the norm still must be met.

Isn’t it sad that by the end of Advent, we can be very exhausted, and for all the wrong reasons? This is a time to sit back and consider many things: the year is coming to an end—what has this past year meant to you? A new year is only three weeks away – what aspirations do you have for this “newness” and “looking forward” that is yet to come? The celebration of the Christ Child is almost here—what has that to do with the life of this world and God’s kingdom? What does all this mean to you?

John – at the end of his life – had questions. He was a great person of faith, but, in the end, he had questions. “Are you really the One we have been waiting for?” he has his friends ask Jesus. The Lord sends word back for him to look back, see, and remember what has happened in his lifetime. The blind see; the lame walk, the ill are cleansed, the deaf hear, the poor have hope. What you see, John, is exactly what you get. You—and others—have asked. Guess what? You got what you asked for!
At the end of this year, my hope is that you will see that you, too, have received many gifts from God that you asked for. Whether it was through prayer, deep study and questions through Bible study, or through that way that we ask God for things and aren’t really aware that we have asked – we have received!

Can you find a time to pause from everything for the next two weeks? Can you somehow sit back and assess what has happened in your life and think on what is to come? I hope so. It’s a challenge for me to do this as well.

Pray for me and I will pray for you, in order that our hearts will be open and our minds clear. He has come; He has died; He will come again. To God be the glory! Amen.

God loves you and so do I!

Pastor Jim