What Child Is This? December 23, 2024

Only a day and a half left in Advent 2024. I encourage you as you read this to stop whatever you are doing and just be quiet and silent for as long as possible – a minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes or more. Don’t think about anything, don’t do anything, don’t even pray. Pay attention to your breathing as Almighty God creator of the Universe cares about you so very much He gives you every breath. Just be, right where you are. Allow God to gaze on you with love as you gaze on God with Love. Look at God, as God looks at you. You were created for such a time as this.

I am Sacristan at my Church and just put out and up our Church Manger scene. It’s mystical. I stare at the figures in this scene who witnessed the birth of the Christ child and I am there, with all of them. These are real people, historical figures but also so much more. The birth of Christ transcends time and matter. With God there is no time. We call this Kairos which means present because God abides eternally in the present.

I also turn my mind and heart to my own life and know that you and I have a story in God’s plan. God doesn’t tell us what your plan nor my plan is completely. God didn’t tell Mary and Joseph what their plan was completely in being the parents of Jesus would entail. God didn’t completely tell the Apostles nor any Saint the complete plan for his or her life. We are not robots; God gave us free will and desires each of us to choose God and to choose to believe Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah and God. It’s also not just that we have to figure everything out for ourselves as God provides people in our life to guide us and fulfill God’s plan for our lives. We do have to cooperate and desire God and seek to do the will of God like Jesus did; like Mary did: like Joseph did. It’s a matter of Grace, which is God’s life in us. We must train ourselves to read the signs of the times in our very lives and then act, even if and when we make mistakes or go off course God is with us, never abandoning us.

Here is some of my story. I am exactly where God has placed me right here right now. We don’t get to choose our families but God knows why we have our families and I am thankful God chose my family because I could not or never pick better parents and a better brother, all of who help guide me to God. My father and brother have gone home to God, both for many years now. Each was a gift to me, guiding me and teaching me from boyhood to manhood and both sharing and passing on the faith in Jesus they were taught. I live with my mother. She is a blessing. She teaches me more in and by action then by words and she is still teaching and will until she goes home. God has placed other relatives and friends in my life along the way to guide me to God as well. I was married and God blessed the marriage with four children that are gifts and such a blessing to me, they teach me more then I teach them. I love them all and have a special and unique relationship with each of them. I know they love me. My older brother, and only sibling, who has gone home has three children, all of whom I try my best to be present to them and who I also love dearly partly because my brother and father live in me as does Jesus.

There are so many others I call friends and acquaintences throughout my life starting as early as kindergarten I still walk with. All are a blessing and teach me because that’s the way Our Lord God works. I have also met many through my ministry work, charitable work, Church work, jobs and in other ways I have walked with from the womb to the tomb. The encounters I have had in my almost two years of Sacristan work are mind blowing to me and can only have come from God as there is no other explanation that can be given and all I mention above would be to numerous to detail but I encourage you to examine your conscience nightly before retiring for bed on all the encounters in your life too because God is in all of them. It’s very awesome and when you train your brain to review your past day, week, month, year, decades and life on an ongoing basis you will see the signs and you will see God in all of it.

Go for it! It’s a beautiful journey our lives, and live in the present and I look forward to what God will bring me in the future and hope you do to.

I tell my children – Stand for something or you will fall for anything and this is the day the Lord has made, let us REJOICE and be glad in it. If you and I live this way we will live in the present loving God and neighbor.

Keep on Walking By Faith To Live Joyfully!!!!