Abiding In The Celebration – by Rene Milner

  Posted on December 20, 2016  by   No comments

Celebrations and festivals always make me thoughtful. I suppose that is one of the great reasons for having a time set apart to look at various aspects of who we are and what our purpose is. Fortunately for me there have been people in my life over the last couple of years that have switched the lenses in my glasses so that now everything that was clear previously is less visible and some things that were fuzzy before have now come into sharp focus. It blows my mind each time one of these clear pictures fades away for a vision of something so much more, in the distance. What is even more mind boggling is when the new sight reveals a much more simple and defined picture with so much more depth. The difficult part for me is giving up the close, complex 2 dimensional picture for this simple but much more colorful 3D image. As I look past the simple picture and focus on the new more distant picture,  I am beginning to realize that all those distant pictures are part of one big glorious landscape that all fits together seamlessly.

So, what is this rambling about? Why, Christmas of course. Let me see if I can perhaps make some sense out of this. Christmas is wonderful. The little baby in the manger, the whole cool story of shepherds and angels and of course the wise men and the star. Even a star that highlights the whole thing. What better way to celebrate? And we as Christians have the ultimate reason to use these stories to celebrate. Jesus! And celebrate we do. We pull out the decorations and the tree. We light the lights and give gifts. We even share food and fellowship with friends and family alike. I love Christmas! OK so we tend to overspend, overeat and overwork. We have some difficult family relations. We stay up late and try to squeeze a little extra travel or activities into our available time. But hey, it’s once a year right? So this is where I should have stuck to the narrative. I should have kept reading from Luke 1 or Matthew 1. How in the world did I find myself in midst of John?

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. John 15:1-9

To abide: to remain, to sojourn, to tarry, not to depart, to continue to be present, to be held, kept continually.

Hmmm. No sign of run, hurry, race here.

So as I look at my picture of Christmas, do I see this? As I race to the store (Amazon that is) am I abiding? As I set up the decorations and prepare the meals, am I abiding? Is this fruit I see in my close up picture? In years gone by at this point I would suddenly change course (usually throwing my passengers wildly up against the side of the vehicle and each other) and stop doing all these things.  But, stopping these things is not really abiding. Abiding is a state of being not a state of doing. To steal a word, it’s sort of like “Is-ing”. Is-ing  is being not doing. Abiding is being with the “I am”. Yes, I can do while I be. In fact, it is required. “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit…”.  I am sure that by fruit He is not referring to the fruit cake or the other trimmings. Fruit for Him is the harvest. Is my “doing” coming from my “being” and drawing others closer to abiding in Him? If so it is fruit. If not it should be. If it can’t be, I need to dump it! Even as I write this I see the business of others around me fade from my sight and a peace overcomes me as I view that I am sojourning continually in a better, grander picture. Sometimes it takes a moment to separate and force ourselves to lift our eyes unto the more beautiful picture that is Jesus Christ. This lets us let go of the anxiety of the “close-up” objects that can so easily obscure our vision and focus on just being in the picture with Him, Baby, Shepherd and the Crucified Lamb.

May the peace of Christ remain in your heart now and throughout all your years, continually no matter what the business around you.

Rene Milner