Friday, December 7, 2007

Today's text

Matthew 24:36, 40, 44

[Jesus said:] “But as for that day and hour, nobody knows it neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, no one but the Father. … So stay awake, because you do not know the day when your master is coming. … Therefore, you too must stand ready because the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

Prayer

I should not be surprised that we cannot know the day or the hour. It has always been so.

For I remember, Jesus. I remember the despairing years of unending grayness. I remember the desperate wanting when I needed you to come to my heart, withered joyless in your absence. And even then, you still showed up, at least from time to time, startling my soul to tears in moments I could neither predict nor manipulate

And now, again, I stand in ready need of your arrival. I always stand in such need, Jesus. But there are times and days when I lose myself in the winds of circumstance, times when I am not myself, never more, always much less than when I am in your nearness.

Today is such a time. There is too much to do and think and too little time to feel and know just exactly what is happening in this soul of mine. And you know: I only know myself when I know your nearness, when you come with love and mercy, and my soul releases its conflicts and confusion into the enveloping ocean of your immensity.

I hunger to be myself, that which I am only in your inscrutable nearness, your all-embracing love.

So come, Lord Jesus, and keep coming.

Come with the final revelation of your holy reign. And until then, open our hearts to the sweet nearness of you who are ever here.

Pr. David L. Miller