As mid December arrives and I am finishing up my shopping, I feel fully entrenched into the “Season of Stuff”. Between Thanksgiving, Christmas, and birthdays, the buying and giving and eating of stuff can get a little overwhelming. I find I can too easily get caught up in all the food, decorating and gifts that make up the stuff of these holidays and lose sight of the things that really matter. So how do I attempt to guard against all this “stuff”?
I too easily begin to think of how much stuff I have as how blessed I am. My thoughts return to those verses I read in Luke 1 as Mary gives praise when she visits with Elizabeth that I wrote about in “Considered Blessed”.
48 for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
Another lesson comes to mind, especially as I compare this passage to something I read very shortly after this passage in Psalm 46
16 Do not be overawed when a man grows rich,
when the splendor of his house increases;
17 for he will take nothing with him when he dies,
his splendor will not descend with him.
18 Though while he lived he counted himself blessed—
and men praise you when you prosper—
19 he will join the generation of his fathers,
who will never see the light of life.
Mary doesn’t call herself blessed in Luke. Her challenging life didn’t suddenly get better. Joseph stood by her, but we don’t ever hear about them obtaining great amounts of wealth. Jesus worked as a carpenter, just as his earthly father had, to earn a living. They worked hard to keep a roof over their head and food in their mouths. Add to this the fact that her children didn’t see eye to eye, and she watched her eldest die on a cross. Not the picture of a blessed life. Yet, we look back at them from the vantage of a future generation and call her blessed, because God was doing great things through her. Her blessing had nothing to do with “stuff”. God worked through her, giving us Himself in human form.
Compare that to the passage in Psalms, where the rich man counted himself blessed while he lived (v 18) and people tended to be in great awe of him, but when he died he had nothing. Here’s the adage “you can’t take it with you” right in scripture. All his earthly stuff did not bring him eternal life, his blessings were temporary and created no lasting legacy. It is so easy to fixate on those kinds of blessings, but are those the kind I want?
Don’t get me wrong. God does give us stuff, sometimes lavishly, and it is ok to ask Him to do so. We just don’t need to be fixating on God solely as a dispenser of stuff, using that as the measure of how blessed we are. Again, I find I need to keep an eternal kingdom perspective of blessings.
This was hit home for me by what one of our worship leaders said one Sunday morning –
“The blessing is not what God gives you, the blessing is God Himself.”
How appropriate for this Christmas season, to remember that the real blessing is God sending His only son, Jesus, to dwell with us, and to save us.
So, as we draw close to Christmas, I wish you Christmas Blessings, not just for stuff, or even joy and peace, but the presence of God Himself in your life.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14 (NIV)
I too easily begin to think of how much stuff I have as how blessed I am. My thoughts return to those verses I read in Luke 1 as Mary gives praise when she visits with Elizabeth that I wrote about in “Considered Blessed”.
48 for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
Another lesson comes to mind, especially as I compare this passage to something I read very shortly after this passage in Psalm 46
16 Do not be overawed when a man grows rich,
when the splendor of his house increases;
17 for he will take nothing with him when he dies,
his splendor will not descend with him.
18 Though while he lived he counted himself blessed—
and men praise you when you prosper—
19 he will join the generation of his fathers,
who will never see the light of life.
Mary doesn’t call herself blessed in Luke. Her challenging life didn’t suddenly get better. Joseph stood by her, but we don’t ever hear about them obtaining great amounts of wealth. Jesus worked as a carpenter, just as his earthly father had, to earn a living. They worked hard to keep a roof over their head and food in their mouths. Add to this the fact that her children didn’t see eye to eye, and she watched her eldest die on a cross. Not the picture of a blessed life. Yet, we look back at them from the vantage of a future generation and call her blessed, because God was doing great things through her. Her blessing had nothing to do with “stuff”. God worked through her, giving us Himself in human form.
Compare that to the passage in Psalms, where the rich man counted himself blessed while he lived (v 18) and people tended to be in great awe of him, but when he died he had nothing. Here’s the adage “you can’t take it with you” right in scripture. All his earthly stuff did not bring him eternal life, his blessings were temporary and created no lasting legacy. It is so easy to fixate on those kinds of blessings, but are those the kind I want?
Don’t get me wrong. God does give us stuff, sometimes lavishly, and it is ok to ask Him to do so. We just don’t need to be fixating on God solely as a dispenser of stuff, using that as the measure of how blessed we are. Again, I find I need to keep an eternal kingdom perspective of blessings.
This was hit home for me by what one of our worship leaders said one Sunday morning –
“The blessing is not what God gives you, the blessing is God Himself.”
How appropriate for this Christmas season, to remember that the real blessing is God sending His only son, Jesus, to dwell with us, and to save us.
So, as we draw close to Christmas, I wish you Christmas Blessings, not just for stuff, or even joy and peace, but the presence of God Himself in your life.
John 1:14 (NIV)
