Thursday, December 08, 2005


The Fullness of Time
Betsy Childs

God does not abhor waiting as most of us do. He doesn't rush the seasons, and his vision is so far-sighted that He is willing to spend generations unfolding his plans, the symmetry and justice of which can often only be seen in hindsight.By human standards, it took God a very long time to fulfill his promises to send a redeemer to his people. We first get an inkling that God has a redemptive plan in motion when he prophecies that the descendant of Adam would crush the head of the serpent's offspring. Slowly, over centuries, God revealed bits and pieces of what this person would be like. The feast of Passover, the Temple sacrifices, and the words spoken by the prophets all build a cumulative idea of The Anointed One who would be the hope of Israel.

Meditation continues. Art

To wait open-endedly is an enormously radical attitude toward life. So is to trust that something will happen to us that is far beyond our imaginings. So, too, is giving up control over our future and letting God define our life, trusting that God molds us according to God's love and not according to our fear. The spiritual life is a life in which we wait, actively present to the moment, trusting that new things will happen to us, new things that are far beyond our own imagination, fantasy, or prediction. That, indeed, is a very radical stance toward life in a world preoccupied with control.
Henri J. M. Nouwen Nouwen Centre

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