Meditation for Good Samaritan Residents

11AM  Chapel  12/17/10

 

            For some reason, in the past few weeks,

                        I have been confronted with images of my youthful past.

A number of old friends and relatives have sent me old pictures,

            some photographs taken years ago when I was in my 20's…

                                    … back when I was a lot skinnier,

                                                and had a lot more hair that wasn't gray…

  - and I wonder sometimes,

             how did all the years & the changes slip past me so quickly?

 

I am finding this year, during this Christmas season,

            that I am remembering and thinking more about the past;

                        the people I've known and folks that I a miss,

                            and Christmas memories & experiences over the years.

 

And I wonder, what does it all mean?

    Is this just one more year, does this Christmas  really matter?

 

The people of Israel being held captive, exiles in Babylon

            looked back fondly – perhaps longingly

                 to their earlier lives, to their former homes in Israel,

                        before the Babylonians invaded & conquered their land.

 

Looking around the strange and foreign city of Babylon,

            perhaps they wondered, how did this come to pass ----

                        so many memories and changes,

                                                and how did things slip away so quickly?

            Which left them wondering, what is the point?

                        What have we got left that we can look forward to,

                                    and does any of this really matter?

 

So God sent the prophet Jeremiah,

            who wrote to the unhappy exiles living in Babylon:

Lamentations 3:19-24

            The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall!  My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me.

            But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:  The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” 

           

The promise & our hope is indeed, the steadfast love of the Lord,

                        who proved that divine love of God

                                    in coming to us as the Christ-child,

                                                to save us and be with us forever.

 

I believe God's mercy and grace are fresh every morning,

            and that if we will keep our eyes and our hearts open, à

à             then by faith

                        we will and experience the loving embrace of the Lord…

                                                … that will make Christmas this year,   

                                                            truly a gift of something special.

 

One time in the rush and jostling of a crowded store,

            the pieces of a nativity set were strewn across the floor;

                        and when woman shopper stopped to get it off the floor,

                 she heard a mother scolding her little girlà

                        for picking something up and putting it in her mouth.

 

It turned out that the little girl

            was kissing the baby Jesus from the nativity set;

                        which she held out, asking her mother to buy it for her.

 

            Almost in tears the mother swooped up her little girl,

                        explained that she wanted to buy it for her,

                             but there just wasn't enough money for it that year…

                … and the little girl answered, "That's OK Mommy, à

                           my Sunday School teach said I have Jesus in my heart."

 

As the mother & her daughter moved on, the other woman listening

     rushed up front to the cashier; she bought the nativity set,

        and asked the clerk to give the baby Jesus to the little girl.

 

That woman still has that nativity set without the baby Jesus,

            and she loves to tell the story about that missing figurine,

                        and quickly add, that she has Jesus in her heart.

 

May the Lord our God grant us all,

            eyes that see, and ears that hear, and hearts that receive…

… vs. 22-24

            (for) the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. …  “therefore I will hope in him.”