Thursday, December 10, 2015

1 John 3: 1-3 

Advent has hardly begun and here we are close to the end of the second week. Our Journey has hardly begun and it is already half over. Where does the time go?

I can remember when I was a child, waiting for Christmas to come and believing that it would never arrive. As an adult it seems that one celebration runs quickly into another. There are still 24 hours in a day. When did those 24 hours become shorter?

Of course, 24 hours are still just that, 24 hours. Perhaps the difference comes in the way we view those 24 hours.

As I watch my great niece and nephew playing (they are seven and five), I note that they are fully present to the moments they are in. Generally speaking they do not live in anticipation of what will happen next, they simply live. They live in freedom and trust. In freedom and trust, knowing they are loved and cared for, they simply live. They naturally have what I as a monastic am striving to attain. I strive to live simply so that I can learn to simply live.

In 1 John 3:1, we hear these words, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.” God’s love invites us in this season to investigate the ‘God child’ within us. We are encouraged to take the hand that remains present in trust, with the knowledge of secure love, to the moment. It is in that moment, as it is in this season that we will become reacquainted with the Christ child.

Sr. Debra Johnson, SSJD