SIGNS OF GLORY (ADVENT 9)

December 5, 2011
LUKE 1: 21 Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. 22 When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.

“I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” my husband, Bill, said as he poured a little water on our granddaughter’s head. Since she is only just shy of fifteen months old, she didn’t say much. While she wasn’t sure about her wet head, she loved her PapPap and liked it when he walked around the church and introduced her to the congregation. Then he took her up toward the altar where she pointed up at the large cross hanging on the wall. Her innocent face beamed as she looked up, then took her little finger and pointed from the cross to her heart as her PapPap had shown her a few months past. She was not able to speak, but the signs she made were her testimony of the presence of God in her young life.

“Oh come on, Doris,” some might say, “she’s just a baby.”

“Yes she is.” She is a baby who is learning to be loved, to give love, and to accept the love of God . . . and she already wears signs of glory on her face.

What telling expressions do we wear? Do we carry the worry of the world, the anger that’s buried within, or the fear that comes with mistrust, on the face we present to others? Or, like Zechariah, who had been told by the angel Gabriel that his son will be the one to precede the Christ, do others see signs that indicate we have seen visions, that we have brushed the face of God? Let us pray:

“Creator God, who brought to life all there is with your loving, mighty words, Holy is your name. We pray that your kingdom may come in your own time and that it may burst into our lives like the dawn of the Beginning. We ask that your love may be so clear in our lives that only that love is seen shining from our face. Consume us with the brilliance of your love, so that all that is not You may be burned away. Forgive us when we doubt, but more important than our needs, shield others from seeing our uncertainty so that they might not lose hope in You. Shine through us, father God, in truth and love. In the name of Jesus, the Christ Child we pray. Amen”
Doris
“God gives us stories that testify to His love. Let me tell you mine.”
Copyright 2011 Doris Gaines Rapp, Ph.D.