Help support the vision of Woodland Hills Community Church!

Help support the vision of Woodland Hills Community Church!
For those of you who would like to support the vision & ministry of Woodland Hills Community Church (the faith community I serve that continues to encourage me to minister outside the box), please click on the link just above.

Thursday, December 18

Today’s Readings: Psalm 56; Malachi 3:13-18; Matthew 24:45-51; Romans 11:33-36; Psalm 73

While I have never had a child of my own, I have had the opportunity to walk with friends, family members, and parishioners as they went through the process. I noticed that many of the days during the pregnancy had a variety of stresses associated with them. Those stressful days were full of things like enduring morning sickness, anxiously waiting for doctor’s appointments to make sure everything was okay, filling out the family medical leave request forms to get time off, buying furniture to fill the baby’s room, etc. There were moments when the soon-to-be-parents wondered if they would survive the pregnancy. All of those doubts fade away, however, the moment things culminate in the delivery room and they can see the baby for the first time. In that single moment, everything finally makes sense in ways that they never did before. The psalmist notes that we people of faith can have a similar moment when everything finally clicks for us as well. In talking about facing the rhythms of life, the psalmist observed, “… when I tried to figure it out, all I got was a splitting headache … until I entered the sanctuary of God. Then I saw the whole picture” (Psalm 73:16 from The Message). In essence, for the psalmist the sanctuary provide moments like those in the delivery room where everything finally came together and made sense. Those moments when one loses oneself in the awe and wonder of God help us make sense of things in ways that our head never will. In these final days before Christmas I would ask you, “When was the last time you lost yourself in moments of awe and wonder of God?” If it’s been awhile, take some of the time and energy you might otherwise be tempted to pour into shopping for material goods for yourself or others and put some of it into pursuing opportunities to experience that sense of awe and wonder. Til next time…

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