Advent Devotion: December 4, 2024
The Place of Grace
~Janie Bruce
Scripture – Luke 1:13-17 (NRSVue) But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John. You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or strong drink; even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
Reflection
There is something so emotionally evoking about the promise of a new child. Often it’s an overwhelming feeling of joy for the beginning of a new family. For some it may be a feeling of fear or disbelief when it comes as a surprise. Speaking as someone who suffered from fertility issues for years, I feel as though I relate to Zechariah in that the announcement of a child was something I longed for. It was something I prayed for for years. While I wasn’t quite as old as Zechariah in this passage, I was well past the place in my life where I would have been considered a “young” parent when I was finally able to announce that we were going to have a baby.
This passage is a reminder to me of how blessed we are to be loved by God and receive the kind of grace that we can only get from God. Zechariah receives a gift from God at a very late time of his life. We also hear that John will be filled with the Holy Spirit while he’s still in his mother’s womb, meaning that we receive God’s grace before we are even born. Both are reminders that it doesn’t matter where we are in life, we are deserving of God’s grace. We often try to declare when and why we should receive God’s grace, but it’s not up to us. God has loved us from the beginning and through every time and place in our lives.
Know that you are deserving of God’s grace, God’s love, and God’s gifts wherever you are in your life.
Prayer
Dear God,
We love you. And we thank you for loving us from before we were born and throughout our lives. We ask that you help us remember that your love comes at no cost to us. And that we should love others in the same way.
Amen.
The Place of Grace
~Janie Bruce
Scripture – Luke 1:13-17 (NRSVue) But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John. You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or strong drink; even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
Reflection
There is something so emotionally evoking about the promise of a new child. Often it’s an overwhelming feeling of joy for the beginning of a new family. For some it may be a feeling of fear or disbelief when it comes as a surprise. Speaking as someone who suffered from fertility issues for years, I feel as though I relate to Zechariah in that the announcement of a child was something I longed for. It was something I prayed for for years. While I wasn’t quite as old as Zechariah in this passage, I was well past the place in my life where I would have been considered a “young” parent when I was finally able to announce that we were going to have a baby.
This passage is a reminder to me of how blessed we are to be loved by God and receive the kind of grace that we can only get from God. Zechariah receives a gift from God at a very late time of his life. We also hear that John will be filled with the Holy Spirit while he’s still in his mother’s womb, meaning that we receive God’s grace before we are even born. Both are reminders that it doesn’t matter where we are in life, we are deserving of God’s grace. We often try to declare when and why we should receive God’s grace, but it’s not up to us. God has loved us from the beginning and through every time and place in our lives.
Know that you are deserving of God’s grace, God’s love, and God’s gifts wherever you are in your life.
Prayer
Dear God,
We love you. And we thank you for loving us from before we were born and throughout our lives. We ask that you help us remember that your love comes at no cost to us. And that we should love others in the same way.
Amen.
