Traveling Home

Psalm 121

¹ I lift up my eyes to the hills—
from where will my help come?
² My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.

³ He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
⁴ He who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵ The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade at your right hand.
⁶ The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.

⁷ The Lord will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
⁸ The Lord will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time on and forevermore.

 

 

Today or tomorrow, many of us will be traveling home.  As a prayer, I give you  Psalm 121 a traditional for travelers. 

 

For fun to fill your trip, I offer you three fun car games.  I wonder what your family plays?

 

Related

One person says a word, like "cat."  The next person says a word they think is related like "fluffy."  Keep going around the car and see where your thoughts take you.

 

I Prefer

The caller asks, "Which would you prefer, crunchy or creamy... rainbows or puddles... fireplaces or firepits... snowcones or icecream... etc.  Its a fun way to learn more about each other and can last as long as your ideas.

 

Snoggleblat

Every person in the car picks a thing they will see frequently, but not too often, on the side of the road.  Like a billboard.  Without telling the rest of the passengers, they assign that thing a silly name and everytime they see it, they say the silly name.  The rest of the passengers must try to guess what their silly word refers to.  Everyone in the car can have a different thing and a silly word at the same time.

 

With you, I pray for your safe journey and for the safety of all those who travel this day. We pray also for those who have no home to travel to, for those who live in cars or tents or shelters. May the Lord watch over our migration, fill our paths with joy, our way with peace, and guard us under a sheltering wing, until we are all home again.  Amen.

Come, Lord Jesus

 

Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.

Isaiah 2:1-5

This morning I awake with the luxury of imagining how I might spend this day.  For it is not a school day, not a work day.  It could be a shopping day, a reading day, a playing with the children day, a visiting with relatives day. 

I am aware that as I write this, many have been awake through the night, stocking shelves or making lists, preparing for the shopping of the day,. That right now, there are folks waiting at the doors eager to get the bargain that will be just the right gift and that will propel retailers’ books  into the black. 

Many of you, I imagine have traditions for this day, even as you have traditions for Thanksgiving and for the days and weeks leading up to Christmas.   I wonder what your tradition is?  As a child, my grandmother packed a picnic of pimento cheese and hot chocolate for me and my sisters, my dad, my grandfather, my uncles and my cousins and sent us off to the horse races at Churchill Downs. While we were cheering on our horses, my grandmother, my mom and aunts went out to lunch and shopping.  How lovely it was to have a day, just to enjoy family, with no worries about what the next day would bring. How good it is to have a day after the big feast making and before the travel home, before the return to routine and the beginning of the rush of December. 

I pray that whatever you are doing this day, you will find a quiet time to think and even talk with your family about the way you will begin the new year that is coming, a new year  that for us in the Christian tradition begins on the first Sunday of Advent, which falls this year on December 1. 

Advent means “to come.”  In this season leading up to Christmas, we prepare for three comings, three advents of Jesus.  The first is the coming of Jesus over two thousand years ago, to a faithful people, Abraham and Sarah, Moses, Miriam and Aaron, King David and prophet Isaiah, Elizabeth, Zachariah, Simeon, Anna, shepherds and kings, the simple and the wise, who watched for the coming of God’s promised Messiah.

we can be awake and alert standing on tiptoe, wide eyed and watchful, ready to receive him whenever he comes

 

The second advent is the coming of Christ among us now.  We know that every day, Emmanuel, God-always-with-us, comes to us in the waters of baptism, in the breaking of bread and wine, in the reading of God’s word, in the fellowship of disciples, the delight of creation, and in the least expected places.  Christ surprises us, coming to us in unexpected places, through people we least expect, blessing us with new life.

The third advent we prepare for in this season is the advent yet to come.  Christ will come again, at the end of time, gathering God’s people, healing all wounds, mending all that has torn us apart.  As author Susan Briehl writes in her excellent Advent devotional, “as with the coming of Christmas Day, we cannot make it happen sooner because we are eager, nor can we delay it because we are not ready.  However, we can be awake and alert standing on tiptoe, wide eyed and watchful, ready to receive him whenever he comes.”  (Briehl, Come, Lord Jesus, 8)

We affirm these three advents in the prayer we pray before sharing communion, the Prayer of Great Thanksgiving, “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.”  And in this season we pray with hopeful hearts, “Come, Lord Jesus!”

Daily devotions through Advent will make us attentive to the way that Christ has come among us, the way that he comes among us in the midst of our ordinary and busy lives, and the hope we have in his ultimate coming.  May the days ahead be filled with wonder and joy at the coming of our Lord, and your table be a place of sharing the wonders God has shown you.   

On this day, no matter how you have chosen to spend it, may you be met by the One who has come, the One who comes even now and the One who will come again!

 

I look forward to this walk with you in the light of the Lord! 

Please feel free to post here your thoughts, reflections and family experiences as we watch together for the coming of our Lord!