Scripture: Matthew 24:36-44
Matthew 24:36-44: “Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the householder had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore, you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
As I am writing this devotion, the eyes of the Nation are on the third hurricane in three weeks to hit North America. Hurricane Ivan is speeding toward the Gulf of Mexico. At this time no one knows when or where the storm will make landfall. Residents in the predicted landfall areas are again boarding up their houses and gathering needed supplies. People have already evacuated in some areas and moved inward to watch and wait.
Watchfulness and preparation are the themes of the lectionary reading for today. With Thanksgiving behind us, most of us will now find ourselves in the whirling winds of preparing for Christmas. Without realizing it, we are swallowed up in the demands of the season. Others of us are being tossed by paralyzing personal storms of illnesses, grief and loneliness. When life is blowing and pushing all around us, it is easy to miss God’s voice calling us to “Stop, look and listen.”
Stop the “busy-ness” and quiet our minds. Begin to prepare our hearts for the Lord’s arrival.
Look and watch for the Lord’s comings and goings in our daily lives. Watch for God’s peace in the eye of our personal storms.
Listen for God’s voice. His voice is not in the wind or in the thunder, but in the whisper of a parent’s prayer, or the soft cries of a baby wrapped and lying in a manger.
Prayer: Lord, open our eyes and our ears that in the midst of life’s storms we will hear your voice, and receive your blessings. Keep us always watchful and prepared for your comings and goings in our lives. Amen
Rev. Jan Thornton
For the beauty of the skies
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies.
Lord of all, to Thee we raise
This our hymn of grateful praise.
So many blessings surround us, and one for which I am most grateful is the blessing of music. The scripture reading from The Upper Room today as I write this is Ephesians 5:19-20, “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to he Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Ever since I was a small child I have loved to sing. When I was about ten years old my mother took me to a voice teacher, a gruff old man who looked a lot like Beethoven with busy white hair and brows. He told my mother I didn’t have any special talent, and he wasn’t interested in coaching me. So much for my budding operatic career!
Not to be deterred from her hope of having a musician in the family, Mother started me in piano lessons with dreams that I would become a concert pianist (Mother always dreamed big!) Well, that dream was never realized; I simply didn’t have the talent for it, but it did expose me to music of all kinds.
My piano teacher, and later on, my voice coach (yes, I did find one) were kindly people who exposed a teenager to the wonderful world of music, both secular and sacred. Singing in the choir has been such a blessing to me almost all my life, and I am thankful for the words and music of so many “hymns of praise.”
In this Advent season as we hear the familiar carols and hymns, let’s be grateful that we can enjoy this special blessing form our heavenly Father -- the blessing of music.
Jean Dean