“On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me… six geese a laying.”
Scripture
Psalm 139
Genesis 1:1-2:3
Colossians 1:15-23
1 John 1:1-4
For Reflection
We have arrived near the end of the earth’s 2009th cycle around the sun since the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. These are the shortest, darkest days of the year in the northern hemisphere. Plant life is latent in frozen land and water. Many animals hibernate or have migrated to warmer climes. In Indiana, we are living the carol:“In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan
Earth stood cold as iron
Water like a stone.”
What a time to receive our True Love’s sixth round of Christmas gifts: six days of creation.
Today’s gifts are as mysterious and wonderful as a goose laying an egg and a live gosling hatching from it. Who can fathom the miracle of life? Four times I have assisted and watched our children be delivered and draw their first breaths. Four times all that is rational and scientific and explainable has been tearfully eclipsed by wonder and mystery and sacredness. I sing with Michael Card: “Give up on your pondering and fall down on your knees.”
If you want to argue for or against evolution or scientific creationism, you’ve lost my interest. If you need to try to reduce the incomprehensible and grand process of the formation of life into an argument for six literal days, you’ve missed the point. If you need to try to prove that what we know as life just happened by chance, my heart goes out to you. The invitation today is not about proving or arguing or convincing or taking sides. The invitation today is to receive all life as sacred, to dare to perceive the world as a God's gracious gift, to look unto Jesus as the Apostle John looked unto him: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim.”
Light. Sky and atmosphere. Land and seas, plants and trees. Sun by day and moon by night. Living creatures in the seas and sky. Living creatures on the land and humans in the image of God. The summation of each day or epoch of creation is this: “And God saw that it was good.” Whether Genesis 1 is poetry or pattern of life’s progress, above these it is rooting us all in an infinitely creative, life-giving, beauty-loving, relation-building, grace-bearing God. Creation speaks both of God’s infinite greatness and God’s intimate interest in the smallest detail. And like God, in God’s image, we are created to be.
The Gospel writers and Apostles did not miss the connection between creation and Christ. Paul describes Jesus as the “firstborn over all creation” and that “by him all things were created.” John writes: “That which was from the beginning…our hands have touched.” Michael Card captures something of this mystery: “A mother made by her own child!” In receiving the six days of creation as Christmas gifts, and embracing creation as a mysterious grace, we join with Jesus Christ in bearing life and grace in our world in our generation.
Journaling & Prayer Possibilities
Let your mind wander over the events of the past year. What personal, family, or relationship changes made an impact on your life? What took place in the neighborhood or community or nation that made you thoughtful and responsive? What world events triggered more than a casual response in you? What happened in your community of faith that created challenge and change?
The Holy Spirit often acts as “agitator,” challenging our responses, moving us toward creative stewardship of the resources and relationships we’ve been given. How has that happened this year? For each point of growth or challenge or change, offer thanks. Take this time to listen and still learn from these challenge points.
Song
To The Mystery by Michael Card
When the Father longed to show
A love He wanted us to know,
He sent His only Son and so
Became a holy embryo.
Refrain
That is the Mystery!
More than you can see.
Give up on your pondering
And fall down on your knees.
No fiction as fantastic and wild
A mother made by her own child.
The hopeless babe who cried
Was God Incarnate and man deified.
Refrain
Because the fall did devastate
Creator must now recreate.
And so to take our sin
Was made like us so we could be like Him.
Refrain
Benediction
O Divine Word, we are the offspring of Your purpose. And that purpose reaches down into our flesh. It was fashioned by You and for You. I feel that destiny pulsating within me, and when I respond I respond to the pull of your Creation’s fulfillment. I thank you. Amen. (E. Stanley Jones in The Word Became Flesh)
Posts
