Today we draw ever closer to a recelebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Today perhaps the readings will help you realize that God is always working behind the scenes. The Genesis reading has these words: "Until he come to whom it belongs, to whom the people shall render obedience" (also translated as hope). These words speak of the very beginning, the creation of the world. The earliest suggestions that there would be one to come, a Messiah. God working behind the scenes. Look at the length of time, the history that preceded the birth of Jesus. This is a reminder that trust in God is a challenge to us in our contemporary culture. We have become accustomed to immediate solutions, immediate answers. What Advent and a review of biblical history should teach you and me is that our lives will never be that way.
To say that I truly believe my life, my destiny is in the hands of God requires at least trust and great patience. I have to remind myself each day that God is watching over me, that my life is in his hands.
From the very moment each of us becomes a reality in the mind of God, he has been planning my destiny. But how often I have tied his hands by trying to run my life as thought I didn't place any trust, even recognition, that my life, my destiny, my being was and continues to be in his hands.
During these final (usually hectic) days before Christmas, take a few moments each morning to renew ... or perhaps to reawaken ... that specific trust in God: "God, all that I am, all that I can become, is in your hands. Grace fill me wit this trust in what you are doing with me. Amen."
