Here is your God

In the "Pray as you Go" app the reading for today is Isaiah 40:1-11.  The words are so familiar to me because some of it is reproduced in Handel's Messiah.  I hear these ancient words and conflate it with memories of sitting in a church in West Chester Pennsylvania and hearing my parents sing these words.  It is all sweet for me.

This morning I heard - here is your God.  And who is that?  There is then a description of might and power and also gentleness and care.  That is our God who is like a shepherd - who feeds us, who gathers us, and who carries us.  I sit with this image and know that I have been recently carried by that Shepherd and it brings me to tears. I spend much time carrying others (or thinking that I am) and taking care of myself - thank you very much.  The awareness of being carried is something very different.

"Footsteps" is a popular story and I think its power and longevity  is in its truth.  We so often live our lives thinking that we are in control and taking care of ourselves and the fact is that God has been holding us and protecting us.  One aspect of faith is trusting in that.  Another aspect is an awareness in the moment of the living presence.I think it is rare but still real.  A moment of knowing there is one who is loving me and holding me NOW.

Much of the time for me, it is only in retrospect - in times of reflection.  When I can see the footprints in the sand.   I can look back and see how God guided me and literally saved me from myself and others. What it does for me ultimately is make me aware of my fragility and ignorance and weakness.  Why else would I need a God?  

And so, here we are in Advent - a time for preparing ourselves for our celebration of the coming of Jesus again this year.  What strikes me this morning is the awareness of the vulnerability of everyone who is part of the story - Mary, Joseph, Zecharius, Elizabeth, the Shepherds, the Magi.  They have each said yes - to an angel, to a dream, to a voice and found themselves going and doing things they never imagined.  And trusting there is a God - who will feed, protect and carry them.

So, my prayer for myself today is that I might be open to God's leading and at the same time trust in God's protective presence.  That brings me peace today.

Here is a prayer for Protective Love by Maxine Shonk

May God bless you in your frailty.

When you stand defenseless in a world of domination

and when your spirit is naked and vulneerable to forces beyond you,

may you experience the cloak of god gently placed around your shoulders.

May you be covered and protected by truth and goodmess,

may you be wrapped in a realization of the power of God's immense love for the least ones in and around you.

May you be blessed by God's PROTECTIVE LOVE.

Amen