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Rest

             and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. (Luke 2:7)

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” (Psalm 46:10)

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her. (Luke 1:38)

We’ve discussed two of these verses recently, but I want to come back to them as I continue to look at the article on wintering well. The first recommendation in today’s reading suggests that we create a restful space. We need to create room for the guests known as Our Rest and rest. This was the role played by the Christmas tree for a long time. It brought an evergreen (living) tree into the home, and filled it with light, color, traditions, and memories. Most of those have been replaced in our lives by fake things.

I’m working on this. I don’t think I’m any good at celebrating, and my goal is to have my house and yard become a restful, inspirational, creative, spiritual, and productive place. I’m not really sure all those can be done together, but that’s the goal. For now, I seem to have two restful spots. The first is a coffee table that I’m turning into a sort of altar. The things on  it right now represent intangible gifts that God has given me. In January, they’ll be replaced, possibly with things that represent goals, or things that I am giving to God, or one of His names. I haven’t gotten there yet. There happens to be a rocking chair next to the table, and I can sit on it and rest. That idea has just occurred to me.

The other place is my bedroom. It’s sort of obvious as a place to rest, but it is a place where I also pray and read. It’s also a place I go to get warm, to let go of stress. In some ways, I’d like to figure out how to make each room a restful, creative, productive, spiritual and inspirational place. Part of that will have to do with decorations, and part with habits. Perhaps it’s not surprising that the second recommendation is to build a habit of attention. This is where we join Mary in being the Lord’s servant, listening to Him, studying Him, preparing ourselves to do His bidding, and doing it willingly, no matter how hard it is. That’s attending. At least three things get in our way: busyness, fear, and pride. That’s why we need rest time.

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