Monday, January 6, 2014

The Rev. Deacon Holly Hanback
Youth Ministry Leader

Isaiah 60:1-6

Arise, shine; for your light has come,
   and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
2 For darkness shall cover the earth,
   and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
   and his glory will appear over you.
3 Nations shall come to your light,
   and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
4 Lift up your eyes and look around;
   they all gather together, they come to you;
your sons shall come from far away,
   and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses’ arms.
5 Then you shall see and be radiant;
   your heart shall thrill and rejoice,*
because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you,
   the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
6 A multitude of camels shall cover you,
   the young camels of Midian and Ephah;
   all those from Sheba shall come.
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
   and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.
9 For the coastlands shall wait for me,
   the ships of Tarshish first,
to bring your children from far away,
   their silver and gold with them,
for the name of the Lord your God,
   and for the Holy One of Israel,
   because he has glorified you.

Devotional

“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.”

I love this scripture! Arise! Shine! What a beautiful invitation from God. An invitation to share with the world who we are and whose we are.

“Lift up your eyes and look around.” How often these days do we have our heads and shoulders bent? Bent over computers, ipads, iPods, iPhones, i-whatevers. How often do we miss out on what our children, parents, spouses, friends, co-workers are saying to us and we respond, “just a minute”, “wait a second”, “let me check my e-mail real fast”, “hold on while I finish sending this word to beat my opponent in Words with Friends”, “wait I just have to beat this level in candy crush”? And then we do look up and the room is empty. The children have gone to bed, the parents have left the house, the spouse is now bent over a screen, the friends have moved on and the co-worker is bent a bit more at the shoulder and walking away. And then we bend over a bit more saddened at the missed moment we know we can’t get back, wishing for the conversation we can no longer have, realizing we missed out on the hug that would have changed our whole day and lifted our spirit.

In our gospel the wise men seek out the Christ child, they find him, they see him, they are seen by him and they are overjoyed. They are so overjoyed they open their treasure chests and give all they have to him. We too can feel the joy of the wise men. We can search out the Christ child and we can find him, we can “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.” We can raise our heads, we can look deeply into the eyes of the person in front of us, we can hear them, we can see them and we can offer the treasure of hearts to them. It is truly when we see the Christ in others that we recognize the Christ in ourselves and we feel bold and confident enough to share who we are and whose we are.

Additional Readings

Psalm 72:1-7,10-14; Ephesians 3:1-12; Matthew 2:1-12