Skip to main content

The shy soul


 During Advent I will be looking at Jesus' visits to the Temple.

The first visit is when Jesus is presented as a baby at the Temple by Mary and Joseph, in keeping with the custom that all first born sons were dedicated to God.  The story is told in Luke 2:21-40 and somehow in that great courtyard of milling crowds they were noticed by Simeon and then Anna. …my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the sight of all people. 

In our own Advents and our long waitings for God to answer prayers, or circumstances to change, or the world to become a more just place, or the church to reflect more unity, have there been fragile, ordinary, even innocuous visits from God that we have missed?  God came in the form of a young infant, held by shy, overwhelmed new parents, trying to be faithful to what they had been given to do.  

Can we learn from their example first of all, by keeping faithful to what is in front of us.   What God may hereafter require of you, you must not give yourself the least trouble about.  Everything he gives you to do, you must do as well as ever you can.  That is the best possible preparation for whatever He may want you to do next.  If people would but do what they have to do, they would always find themselves ready for what came next.   George Macdonald.  

Secondly could there been something stirring in our soul that we could easily have dismissed just as the Holy Family would have been easily dismissed amongst the great temple crowd. In the jumble, noise and confusion that often make up our inner worlds and fill the horizons of our awareness how may our ‘shy soul’ be coaxed to make an appearance?   This Advent can you find a bit of extra time to quieten yourself.

Listen to your life.  See it for the fathomless mystery that it is.  In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments and life itself is grace.  Frederick Buechner.

Comments

  1. galingaeblerFebruary 25, 2022 at 7:13 PM

    Slot Machines: The Best Casinos in 2021 - Wooricasinos
    Slot Machines: The 네이버 룰렛 Best Casinos in 2021 · 카지 5. Casino Empire: Slot Machines 브라 벗기 · 4. Wild Gold: Slot Machines · 3. Casino Club: Slot 스코어 사이트 Machines · 2. Super 힘 숨찐 챌린지

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Re-enchantment

  The magical wonder of snow can be lost by a couple of degrees warming turning the white falling flakes into dismal rain.    It is precisely the same elements of moisture and air, humidity and wind, yet the shifting of the one variant of temperature creates a totally different outcome.  I have only managed three snow days in the mountains this winter, due to a combination of mostly busy diaries and a very unpredictable weather which meant days set aside for a climb would sometimes be literally a washout.  Ina and I did have a good summitting of the Cobbler with the spikes on our boots giving us the grip we needed in the the last snow of the season, and I felt again the sheer wonder of walking in crisp, hard snow as the world fell away around us. It looks like it's gone for the year now though and we have to wait 9 months probably to get out onto the white stuff again.  The hills just look wet and sodden now and most uninspiring... and yet...they are exactl...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lambing Snows and Holy Week

  (photo courtesy of Abi Bull, Isle of Skye) Lambing snow is the name given to an early spring snowfall that can catch some of the wee lambs out who are born at the start of the season.   Farmers have to watch out for this and, given care and shelter, the lambs are usually able to survive.   It coincides too with the images of daffodils emerging through a covering of late snow,   a similar sign of hope and new life in a forbidding and even hostile environment. Nevertheless there is something beautiful of this setting of fragile life against the rawness of nature, something that speaks to the heart of the human condition and the poignancy of it all.   I write this on a Good Friday which is set in a global context of much uncertainty and even fear and desperation.    The centuries old story that we are taken back to again and again by the turning of the season, of a God who died for a suffering and broken world, seems to have more resonance than ever. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

FOMO is over

  FOMO is over During the lockdown, for many people, life was a lot quieter and less busy. One of the upsides of this was that the Fear Of Missing Out was suddenly over!    There was nothing happening to miss out on!    FOMO had become quite a thing, particularly among younger people, and at times turned into a genuine fear that missing out on something would be just the worst possible thing.    It’s easy to laugh at it now and wonder what all the fuss was about but many teenagers and young adults especially were glued to their phones just in case they missed something that might leave them feeling left out. As life returns to some sort of a new normal it would seem that FOMO does not quite have the same power it used to as there is so much still not happening. Probably in the small dramas of high school life there is plenty however.    I remember one of my daughters reflecting back on high school saying… ’Dad, I’m so done with all the dr...
2 comments
Read more