Advent Devotions: Week 2 Tuesday
Readings given for today are Psalm 96, Isaiah 40:1-11, and Matthew 18:1-4,10-14.
Have you ever lost something you value? Can you imagine if I or your mother lost you in a crowd, like at the water-park, or the zoo, or in a crowd. How do you think we would feel? How earnestly do you think we would hunt for you? I don't think we would stop until our strength was completely exhausted. And then, we would keep looking as soon as we were rested, until we found you. Jesus is telling his people that God too, is like that. His people had been waiting for centuries for the Messiah to come. They knew God would send a Messiah, because Isaiah had predicted it.
Isaiah is writing to reassure his people that their time of troubles are not going to last forever. And that someday they will be rejoicing, running to the tops of mountains and singing praises like those we heard in the Psalm. Now the people Jesus was talking to weren't all sure he was the Messiah, but is reassuring them that just as a shepherd will look for that last lost sheep, or a parent for his lost child, God will seek out and find his people, even if they were looking for the wrong Messiah.
I also want to tell you today about something else. Something important happened a long time ago, today. Do you know what that was? Did anybody tell you at school? Today is December 7th. In 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor sinking many ships and killing many people with bombs and machine guns in fighter planes. They also attacked Americans in the Philippines at the same time. (Read this).
Let us pray:
Come Lord Jesus, we pray for all of those who died at Pearl Harbor, during the 9/11 attacks, and all those who have died fighting for our great land. And please look after all the little ones in the world, especially remembering those close to our hearts.
Amen.
Have you ever lost something you value? Can you imagine if I or your mother lost you in a crowd, like at the water-park, or the zoo, or in a crowd. How do you think we would feel? How earnestly do you think we would hunt for you? I don't think we would stop until our strength was completely exhausted. And then, we would keep looking as soon as we were rested, until we found you. Jesus is telling his people that God too, is like that. His people had been waiting for centuries for the Messiah to come. They knew God would send a Messiah, because Isaiah had predicted it.
Isaiah is writing to reassure his people that their time of troubles are not going to last forever. And that someday they will be rejoicing, running to the tops of mountains and singing praises like those we heard in the Psalm. Now the people Jesus was talking to weren't all sure he was the Messiah, but is reassuring them that just as a shepherd will look for that last lost sheep, or a parent for his lost child, God will seek out and find his people, even if they were looking for the wrong Messiah.
I also want to tell you today about something else. Something important happened a long time ago, today. Do you know what that was? Did anybody tell you at school? Today is December 7th. In 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor sinking many ships and killing many people with bombs and machine guns in fighter planes. They also attacked Americans in the Philippines at the same time. (Read this).
Let us pray:
Come Lord Jesus, we pray for all of those who died at Pearl Harbor, during the 9/11 attacks, and all those who have died fighting for our great land. And please look after all the little ones in the world, especially remembering those close to our hearts.
Amen.
posted by Mark at 12/07/2004 06:36:00 PM
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