Remembrance of Advent with a Friend - 4

My friend Paul's sharing for the Third Sunday of Advent, 2003:

For your reflection and devotion in the third week of Advent.

Come

Come, God-with-us:
who braves our rejection and hurt,
to show your love and acceptance.

Come, God-for-us:
who whispers
in our ears
that we -
each of us -
are your Beloved children.

Come, God-under-us:
who cradles us in arms that never grow weary;
whose lap has room enough for all.

Come, God-over-us:
who watches
in the long silences of night,
that we might rest in your peace.

Come, God-beside-us:
who steadies us
when we falter,
who lifts us up
when we fall.

Come, God-behind-us:
who picks up all the faded dreams
we drop along the way, weaving them into hope.

O Come, Emmanuel,

Come!
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Read Psalm 145

This song, in Hebrew, is an acrostic poem - each verse begins with a succeeding letter of the alphabet (i.e., verse 1: A; verse 2: B, etc.)

English translations will not duplicate the effect. Consider the challenge the writer faced! Within personal words of praise and worship, the writer/speaker relates what God has done in the world, God's love and compassion are lifted up, we are told again of God's action all around us.

Where are the glimpses of God in this world today? Can you spare some time today or tomorrow looking for signs that reveal to us that God's kingdom is, indeed, in many places around us?

Can you see God's care in the school teacher who spends extra time with your child or the child with special needs; is God's love demonstrated by that stranger who lets you pay, when in line at the checkout counter, for your purchases first?

What motivates the driver that lets you have the coveted parking space in a crowded lot?

God's justice is revealed in a child who asks to give a present to a struggling classmate; you become God's ears as a neighbor shares her state of deep loneliness with you. God's grace is known in the act of feeding the birds in a parched land or snow-covered scape.

To open our eyes to see what God is doing, will invite surprise and, like the psalmist, open us to praising God!

Prayer:
We would live in your "kingdom," Faithful God,
yet we are not sure where it is or what it looks like.
In our search and wait, re-focus our eyes
beyond the glitter and through the glamour of "Christmas"
so we can see the infant / youth / man Christ
who will show us Your way.
Amen.