Home Tools for your Journey Dec 28

Sunday, December 28

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.
—Luke 1:68

I have always loved this time of year. I suppose in some ways it goes back to my childhood. Out of class, happy with new toys, these days were full of play, discovery, and family. Whether with a new matchbox car or the first generation of a tennis video game—the little white ball bumping across the screen—these days were meant for just "being"—sitting back and doing nothing.

As I got older, the ability "to just be" died. With increasing pressures to perform in school, to do a good job, to excel in work and community, less and less of myself was devoted to "being." It was replaced with the ability to "do," to fill a day with more than one human being should ever take upon oneself. That's the way life is for most of us.

But God asks only that we be. God wants us to live fully as human beings, not the human doings we create in their place. God asks each of us to participate in this beautiful world as an incarnate being—one who was, is and shall be God's very image upon the face of the earth. It is the origin of who we are in God that allows us to be who we were created to be.

So how do we recover our being? How do we become the people God asks us to be? We cultivate a life that reminds us of who we are. We read and study the story of God's love for us. We surround ourselves in a community that values each person for who he or she is. We reach out to others as an expression of who we are within—we do all these things to support the image of God on the face of every human being.

And there, in that place, we remember what it was like this time of year. We remember how to just be and to play. And slowly, the days lengthen and all days become our being.

God, you created me in your image. Remind me to just be, to strip away all the layers of doing that I heap upon my days. And let me play as a child of God. Amen.