*A note before you read this. After doing an audit of my blog in 2022, I have decided to leave content that speaks to the Christian I was at the time this was written. I no longer identify as Christian (and haven’t for a very long time.) I chose to leave these posts because it is who I was then and it is important to me to be honest and true with every iteration and evolution of self that I experience. I may decide to add comments to the end of posts like this as well
If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”
and you make the Most High your dwelling,
no harm will overtake you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
Because she loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue her;
I will protect her, for she acknowledges my name.
She will call on me, and I will answer her
I will be with her in trouble,
I will deliver her and honor her.
It’s how I know He is with me.
The second Sunday of Advent
“After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them, and asking questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his answers. When his parents saw him they were astonished, and his mother said to him, ‘Why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.’ He said, ‘Why were you searching for me? Did you not know I must be in my father’s house?’” Luke 2:46-48 NRSV
Last week we pondered the annunciation, birth, and infancy of Jesus. This week we’ll journey with him as he grows into an adult, and meditate on the confounding grace that “God with us” brings into our daily lives. We begin, once again, at the temple in Jerusalem. Twelve year-old-Jesus has gone missing. It would be one thing if he were gone three hours, but three days had passed. Who can blame his frantic parents for their reaction? It’s his answer to his mother that challenges us: why were you searching for me?
We look for Jesus through slick television preachers, retreats, seminars, and through the multiple millions of dollars worth of Christian living books sold. We scour the Internet for signs of him, but too many times we come up empty. Advent and Christmas season are evidence of the arrival of Christ, yet caught up in holiday madness, so often we fail to find him. What can we do to trust that the Lord as available as he said he would be?
Today, using whatever supplies you are drawn to, interpret “assurance” that Jesus is with you. Your artwork does not have to look realistic. Remember you are expressing yourself–your deepest self. A wild swirl of colors may come out. Play as you pray through this.
My Father God,
Have I frantically looked for Jesus everywhere except for the main place he said I could find him? Jesus said his kingdom was within, and that he’d be in the midst when two or more of us gather in his name. He’s present in the Word, and can even be found when I look into the faces of my brothers and sisters in Christ. Still, like Jesus’ parents, I find myself steeped in anxiety, wondering if I am truly connected to Him. Enlighten my eyes to see Christ wherever he may be found, good Father, and may I come to know him in those places, in fresh, life-changing ways.“Come, Lord Jesus.”