Yesterday in church we were asked to take a gift label and write on it a gift that we would like to bring to Jesus over the coming months. For me Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh are not an option so I have been pondering this one.
This morning's reading was from the book of Amos which comes as something as a shock given we have been in the warm glow of Christmas, gazing at that tiny baby in the manger with the fuzzy
feelgood sense that all will be well. Yet today we have switched to Amos reminding us that
"The lion roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem"
I remember all the warm fuzzy feelings I had when my children were born, I could spend hours just looking at them and wondering in amazement at how miraculous they were. But although that love and sense of wonder never goes, there is a wake up call when they force us to change our ways.
My two are now driving and I have to grit my teeth when they suggest I could have taken a different route or perhaps started to brake sooner, or sort out my approach to roundabouts. Sadly we do not get just to gaze, they change us.
And it is not enough to simply look at Jesus, he asks something of us, he asks us to change , to live distinctively, to engage with him and transform who we are, Amos was sent to remind the people that they had not behaved as they had promised.
Which brings me back to the challenge set yesterday, what will we bring to Jesus this year, for we cannot simply gaze and go back to things as they were.
"The lion roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem" Amos 1 vs 2
This morning's reading was from the book of Amos which comes as something as a shock given we have been in the warm glow of Christmas, gazing at that tiny baby in the manger with the fuzzy
feelgood sense that all will be well. Yet today we have switched to Amos reminding us that
"The lion roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem"
I remember all the warm fuzzy feelings I had when my children were born, I could spend hours just looking at them and wondering in amazement at how miraculous they were. But although that love and sense of wonder never goes, there is a wake up call when they force us to change our ways.
My two are now driving and I have to grit my teeth when they suggest I could have taken a different route or perhaps started to brake sooner, or sort out my approach to roundabouts. Sadly we do not get just to gaze, they change us.
And it is not enough to simply look at Jesus, he asks something of us, he asks us to change , to live distinctively, to engage with him and transform who we are, Amos was sent to remind the people that they had not behaved as they had promised.
Which brings me back to the challenge set yesterday, what will we bring to Jesus this year, for we cannot simply gaze and go back to things as they were.
"The lion roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem" Amos 1 vs 2
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