People
of God: be glad!
Your
God delights in you,
giving
you joy for sadness
and
turning the dark to light.
Be
strong in hope therefore;
for
your God comes to save.
You
are God’s children.
Lord,
make us one in the love of Christ
today
and for ever.
Amen.
You
are God’s children.
My
children are all home for Christmas. I love them, but it can be hard at times. And
love is both possible (indeed, only possible) and hard at times because we are
equals. Were we not equals, I could be condescending towards them, and they
could fear or admire me; but love, love must be freely given and freely
received, shared between equal persons. Not, necessarily, equal in
responsibility—as the parent, I shoulder more responsibility, and, one day, my
children might shoulder greater responsibility for me—but equal in essential
being. This is true of parents and children, whether the child is descended
from the parent, or adopted…or, indeed, begotten not made.
You
are God’s children. And Jesus, the Son, came into the world, equal to us, his
sisters and brothers, that we might be equal to God. That we might share in Love.
And when he comes again, we shall know this, fully. Advent, then, is the Season
to practice knowing what we can hardly dare to believe.
(For
a fuller and more eloquent reflection on this, see here.)
No comments:
Post a Comment