Hi everyone,
A couple years ago I remember taking one of my kids to a birthday party. I usually stick around at these parties to hang out with the other parents and get a gauge on how the other kids are. This is something that I actually miss, now that birthday parties haven’t been allowed for some time.
Anyway, at this particular party I remember chatting with one of the dads, and he stopped our conversation abruptly with a, “uh oh, here comes the police.” I was 99.9% sure that I wasn’t currently doing anything illegal, so I wasn’t all that afraid, but I was wondering what this guy was talking about. But then his younger son (this party was a “siblings welcome” party) came running to him and had this really long drawn out story about how his older brother did this and this and that and that and this and also this and he didn’t like that but he still did this and so forth. And the dad looked at me with this “see what I mean?” look and I just had to chuckle.
Until a couple months later and our daughter started doing the same thing. It’s like she has to tell us whatever happens, especially if it’s about one of her brothers doing something that she doesn’t like. You know, I think we have a word for people that do that.
Either case, she has a story to tell. That other kid’s younger brother had a story to tell. And each one of us, if we really think about it, have a story to tell. We might not always have the opportunity to tell it, but the story is there.
Here are the readings for next week:
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Psalm 126
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1:6-8, 19-28
John the Baptizer was called a “witness to the light”. I thought this was funny because technically, he didn’t witness anything. He was just saying that he knew that the light was coming.
He didn’t see it (that we know of, at least), but he knew it. He hadn’t yet experienced it, but he explained it. He wasn’t it, but he testified as a witness to it… and he had a story to tell.
In John there was a story, and it was told. In us there is a story, and it should be told. For we all have been given this story to tell and we are strengthened… anointed even… to tell it.
Part of our Advent preparations, part of our getting ready for Christmas, part of our preparations to welcome the rest of the church year full of lessons and blessing, is telling our collective story, telling our individual story, and telling God’s story through our relationships, through our community, and through our actions and very lives.
For we are witnesses to God’s grace and mercy, we testify to God’s love, and our story is God’s story flowing in and through our very being.
Let’s be heard.
Have a great week, everyone!
Photo by Amelie & Niklas Ohlrogge on Unsplash