This is the Time of Remembering

A new week is here. A new MONTH is here.

Hello, DECEMBER!

This month is the beginning of the ending of another year, of baking hundreds of cookies and watching quiet snow fall on silent nights.

And we mustn't forget the millions of tiny lights, twinkling houses on cold nights, lighting the way home in the dark. (I DO like that part!)

For me, there's something that warms my heart even more than a steaming cup of hot cocoa.

When the tree is bare from tinsel packed and ribbons from gifts are no more, what is left that lingers long that makes all the effort worth all the doing?

If all we have to look forward to is discounts at Target, 'to Santa or not to Santa', deciding whether to have a fake tree or a real one and who's going to host the family this year (or how are we going to afford all of this anyway?), maybe something's missing? Maybe, just maybe, we're forgetting what started this all in the first place? The reason why this event comes every year?

This is the time of remembering.

When Advent begins, the recollecting of a life that began in a dirty stable so long ago is brought to the forefront of minds and hearts. This is the time of remembering the things that happened to a baby boy who grew up to become something great.

This is the time of remembering how a lost and darkened world finally received the Light it so desperately longed for.

This is the time of remembering how a wee babe, born to a teenaged virgin, made His life count for something, something wonderful.

This is the time of remembering that even when all of life and the universe seems against you, like it seemed for that baby, you can still impact those around you toward good.

This is the time of remembering that that baby became a man, a man Whose Father was God, whose life would one day be laid down for you, for me, for all mankind...willingly.

This is the time of remembering that before Santa, before Christmas trees and elves and yes, even before Wal-Mart, there was something far greater to think upon and to partake in.

This is a time of remembering to look beyond the humanistic rhetoric of being good and doing nice that a more important message is being spoken, under all the noise. Are you listening?

Can you hear it?

Mary did.

Some lowly shepherds in a field did.

A demented, narcissistic king did. He even killed for it.

The divine dialogue that has been whispered across the ages, throughout the centuries, since the beginning of time, is still being uttered today.

That baby, became a man. That man, led a life devoid of doing wrong--sinless, blameless; healing the sick, raising the dead, opening the eyes of the blind--he set prisoners free. He was also brutally beaten and killed for it. He gave His life so that whoever believes in Him would live forever, fully restored in relationship with God. He also was raised from the dead by the same power that spoke mountains and butterflies into existence--His Dad's voice.

We need to silence the outer noise to hear the words inside. That voice calling from deep within us that beckons us to believe, believe that God is Who He says He is, that His love for us is faithful and never-ending and that He wants us all to Himself. The voice of a Father.

This month, for me, is like any other month or any other day or any other minute. It is a time of remembering, remembering what my life once was and now is, in light of God's unrelenting, pursuing passion for me.

He calls to me every day, every hour, every minute, asking me to make quiet the sounds that are not from Him...I need only remember to listen.