Читать книгу Almost Christmas Devotions for the Season - Ingrid McIntyre - Страница 6

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Do I practice godly behavior?

When our children were born, one of the values we wanted to instill in them was deep empathy. The question we faced was, how do we teach our children to care deeply for those who are not like them? How do they learn to see and imagine what it might be like to be someone wholly different? Over the past decade, we have learned very different ways of practicing this value of empathy. One of our favorite practices is to fill gallon-sized resealable bags with items that we have learned over the years folks in our community both need and want. Clean socks, Starbucks gift cards, and healthy snacks are a few examples of things we have learned to pack in these bags after meeting people who are in need and sharing our names and stories. Something else we have learned is the value of writing notes and prayers that aren’t patronizing, but rather focused on honoring the humanity and dignity in each person we meet.

When we reflect on John Wesley’s question, “Do I practice godly behavior?” we do well if it leads us to practice empathy. One of the beautiful traits of the God we worship is that this God deeply empathizes with God’s creation. So much so that God was emptied out for all of creation. Consider Paul’s words in Philippians:

Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be

used to his own advantage;

rather, he made himself nothing

by taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

by becoming obedient to death—

even death on a cross!

(Philippians 2:6-8 NIV)

In this Advent season, we worship God who leans in to who we are as creation as we seek God who loved us first. There are so many wonderful and challenging aspects of the behavior of God that we can read about in the Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament. One of the most powerful in my mind is God who came to us humbly, even as a newborn child, so we might love Jesus who walked the same paths we walk, suffered as we suffer, and loved perfectly.

In this season of Advent, what does it mean to you that God leans in to creation? God whose love manifested in Jesus the Christ? God whose behaviors are beyond our wisdom and yet whose actions of love and grace are known through his Son Jesus? How do God’s actions challenge, encourage, and mold who you are today as you journey toward the wonderous birth of Jesus?

In this Advent season, we are called to personal holiness and reflection as we consider God’s loving behavior for all of creation. We are also challenged to consider God’s love beyond our individual needs and personal devotion. If your spiritual gallon bag were to be filled today, what would you place within it? Would you add items of comfort for those needing to experience God’s presence? Would you focus on substance to feed those around you so they know your actions match your intentions? What would you write in each note to reflect the amazing grace God offers?

As you begin your day, I invite you to thank God for the many ways in which God leans in to us, loves us, and seeks us. Offer to God all that you are, and all that you might ever be, in the name of Jesus.

Rev. DJ del Rosario