Slideshow image

Difficult Journey - Transition to Bethlehem by Fritz von Uhde

Reflection

As many of you know, I love to head out the doors of church or home and go visiting. I’ve thought a lot about why I love this so much, and where God may be during these times. So friends, here is a little musing from about why we visit folk.

We visit because being in relationship is one of our deepest, precious callings from God. We visit because we desire human contact, companionship, friendship, and love. We visit to share a sacred moment in time, to share joys and sorrows. Visits bring hope, a reminder that we are not forgotten or discarded, but that we are precious children of God and that God knew us before we were born.

We visit the elderly, those who once held us in the palm of their hands, and who now, in turn, need to be held and nurtured. We visit the prisoner, to help humanize those dehumanized by the institution of incarceration. We visit because we need to experience the wonderful diversity of God’s creation, to seek Christ in the other.

We visit to remind ourselves that despite our own peculiarities, our own limitations, our own social, cultural narrowness, that we are all cut from the same cloth, that we are equal in God’s eyes. We visit because it is good for our souls and for the souls of those who travel with us on this journey with Christ.

Poem - Walk With God by Paul Berchtold

Pastor, there's too much to do.
Don't try.
Let me tell you a story when you want to
You cry. Adam took a walk with God,
every afternoon,
Then fell from grace
All too soon.
Later, a little boy took baby steps,
Grew up to walk a lot.
He told stories, brought Good News
That people sought.
His last walk he carried
a heavy cross.
He fell. He continued on
To save the lost.
He died. He rose.
He walked again.
To show the way and
Be a friend.
Pastor walk with Jesus.
And, when you fall,
Let Him lift you, carry your burden,
Carry it all.
Tell us, show us, to walk and die with Him
To rise, to live.
It's the best thing you could
Possibly give.
Dear Pastor, walk with God!
God walks with you.
Dear God,
For walking with our Pastor,
Thank You.
Amen.

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Image credits:

AdventJourney photo: Morning mystic - Casey Horner on Unsplash 

Difficult Journey by Fritz von Uhde, 1848-1911. from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56747 

Worship And Prayer
Celebrating Advent and Christmas