"Child of Love" by Sara Groves
Advent Week Four // LOVE
This is the fourth week of Advent. Today we’re lighting all four candles
Hope. Peace. Joy. LOVE. The way the calendar worked this year, this fourth week is quite short. The Fourth Sunday of Advent is also Christmas Eve. All these weeks of waiting and preparing and here, it can feel a bit strange to stall for only a moment to reflect on Love.
(Light the four candles)
Have you had things in your life that feel more significant than what's acknowledged in the time they’re given? A holiday meal that’s been in preparation for weeks flies by in only an hour. A wedding celebration is here and gone in the same few hours it takes to clean the garage.
The story of Jesus’ birth is a rush of moments that just keeps coming. Angels. A miraculous pregnancy. More angels. An inconvenient trip to Bethlehem. Water breaks in a barn. A boy is born. Angles again. Shepherds.
Read: Luke 2:19
But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.
"Treasured up and pondered." Such a great image of the way Mary stored all the moments that had interrupted her world the last nine months.
What things have you treasured up this past year?
Art Reflection:
Mary (La Sainte-Marie), 1898. Henry Ossawa Tanner
What do you notice?
What do you think it says about LOVE?
Years later, John would write, "For God so loved the world…" This is the love story God had in the works for humanity – one that may have felt out of control and rushed to Mary and Joseph, who were living it in real time. But Scripture tells us that it was in just the right time.
Just the right time. How many times do we miss the importance of the moment because our attention is fixed on some other time or situation?
We can’t know what was going through Mary’s mind in those quiet moments, days after Jesus’ birth. But we do know she paused to ponder.
When we look at the fourth candle, we remember God’s love.
How do we respond to that love? What are we to do with that love?
Take time today to stop and treasure up the wonder of the love of God… not only for the whole world, but for you. Right here. Right now. Ponder how the weight of that love is meant to change everything.
Prayer:
Dear God, Thank you for your Son, Jesus. Thank you for the words found in our Bible that help us remember your love and care. Help us to remember how that love is given to make us whole. Give us opportunities today to share that love with others. Help us to be messengers of God’s love for everyone. Amen.