God's Grace in Many Places

O Emmanuel by Malcolm Guite

O come, O come, and be our God-with-us
O long-sought With-ness for a world without,
O secret seed, O hidden spring of light.
Come to us Wisdom, come unspoken Name
Come Root, and Key, and King, and holy Flame,
O quickened little wick so tightly curled,
Be folded with us into time and place,
Unfold for us the mystery of grace
And make a womb of all this wounded world.
O heart of heaven beating in the earth,
O tiny hope within our hopelessness
Come to be born, to bear us to our birth,
To touch a dying world with new-made hands
And make these rags of time our swaddling bands.

I begrudgingly wake up to some very humid warmth. It certainly does not feel like winter, and Christmas is tomorrow. And yet, I cannot help but feel full of cheer and thanks. I do not have reason to complain. For God is good, and His graciousness overflows abundantly, unless you close it off. We do not have to notice God's grace that is evident in so many places. But He is still there.

Christ plays in ten thousand places, wrote Gerard Manley Hopkins. And it is true, and these words make my imagination wander and consider the omnipresence of God, but we can choose to dwell in ourselves and not notice the good that Christ plays all around us.

I can complain all day about the hot weather, but instead I notice all the cheerful decor, the candles, the smiles on faces, the kindness, and I smile at the reminders that God is with us. He has come, to become lowly, and to be with us. Not in a kingly arrival, but a humble arrival on Christmas.

Instead of our Saviour coming and looking down upon us, He comes as an equal (and yet even more lowly) to be with us, next to us. Not lofty and high above us.

Thank You, for the daily reminders Lord, that I am loved and that I can rest in You because You have come, and You have done the most amazing thing by taking my sin as Your own. My thanks are infinite. Glory to God!