Dear Family of Love,
Tonight is Christmas Eve yet again! Can you believe it ? I can't ! Today I remembered my sister Margaret and Uncle Jerry who entered the Thin Places on Christmas Eve. I give thanks to God for their presence in our family's life. Then I thought of how joyful their lives must be in Heaven and that they get to experience Christmases on a heavenly and grand scale just as Dad, Babe, Mom and many of our departed family members do every year. This is the time when we get to put our finishing touches on our dessert and begin to enjoy Christmas without stress by meditating on the keyword: Hope. Today I thought about hope and how necessary our world is in need of it. Hope helps us dial in with all that is holy and gives us patience so that we don't have become wildly anxious and fearful. Hope keeps us grounded in the holy life that we w have been given by God. Hope automatically leads us to shine the light of Christ and become beacons of light bearers of hope. I was also thinking that in order to have hope we must have joy along with it. Hope puts us in a place of joyful and joy-filled expectation. Notice we never use the word wish for hope. I have never hear someone wish upon a star by using the word hope. Hope sets us in a place of tension that isn't fearful or anxious but joyful and joy-filled. Tonight as we meditate on the word hope let us be mindful that we are all to live lives filled with hope,joy,love, and peace. I posted this wish on Facebook this morning, I think it will help us meditate more fully on hope:
My wish for you this day is that your hearts will become a manger filled with love, peace, joy, and hope to welcome Jesus once again. As we #FollowTheStar to Bethlehem with the angels and shepherds let us take time to pause and meditate on the word hope. Let's ask ourselves these questions:
What does the word hope mean to you? What is hope? Do you feel hopeful and hope-filled? Can you live joyfully and a joy-filled life without hope? How can we give hope to God's broken world and to our family members who have lost hope? I'm not going to give you the answers tonight but will tomorrow. That's what I hope to do but we all know God is the true author of this so one never knows!
Tonight let's do a short period of finding peace at the center by mediating on hope. Here is tonight's meditation music David Lanz -Christmas Eve . After you listen to this please begin praying using the word hope or by using tonight's prayers!
Gracious God of Hope, teach us how to wait in joyful and joy-filled expectation for the coming of your Son once again by preparing our hearts to receive him.
Gracious God of Hope, we pray for peace in this your fragile and broken world. May peace and a climate of hope prevail among all of our family members.
Gracious God of Hope, we pray for all of our family members who are ill in body, mind, or spirit. Give them hope while they await your healing.
Gracious God of Hope, we pray for universal human rights for all. Give our family members who feel invisible and discriminated against hope and the strength to speak truth to power and do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with you O God.
Gracious God of Hope, we pray for all who mourn the losses of loved ones. Give them we pray comfort and hope to relieve them of grief's sting.
Gracious God of Hope, we pray for all those who have asked us to remember them in our prayers especially_________.
Gracious God of Hope may we pray using an adaptation of the words I posted on Facebook this morning:
God we pray this day and always that our hearts will become a manger filled with love, peace, joy, and hope to welcome Jesus in our lives every day that we live, move, and just be. We lay these our prayers in the Manger where our Lord Jesus was born and in Jesus most holy name. Amen.
Merry Christmas Dear Family of Love! I love you ! May we be led by the Star to seek Jesus and find Him present in our hearts this day and always. May you have a wonderful day knowing that you are loved beyond all measure and are God's precious treasure. As you are mine.
Love, joy,hope and peace be always yours,
Sara
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