Welcome back to this Advent series of devotionals about “God’s Love Story.”
Ordering Christmas gifts on line is a challenge for me. I am so thankful that my daughter helps me navigate the mysteries of Amazon.com! We all need people in our lives who can advise us when perplexed. During their engagement, my father and mother were no different. Dad was studying in New York and Mom in Massachusetts. My mother’s parents were over 3000 miles away in Ireland. There were many decisions to be made. Phone calls were prohibitively expensive. Wartime mail service was unpredictable. Communication with those she loved was difficult.
March 18, 1941… Dad continued his letter home, “All her life, I imagine, [Joan] has looked to her father for advice, and I know that she misses him greatly.”
Did Jesus ever feel the same way? He traveled not across a mere ocean but moved from heaven to earth, he stepped from eternity into time. What was it like for Jesus not to sit at His Father’s side in the same way as before His incarnation? Jesus looked to the Father for guidance as He spent a night in prayer. Which of all the men he had met should be among the Twelve? He was still dependent upon the Father.
In John 5:19,20, Jesus told the Jews, “The Son can do nothing by himself; he does only what he sees the Father doing; what the Father does, the Son does, for the Father loves the Son and shows him all his works, and will show greater yet to fill you with wonder.” And just a few verses later, he added, “I cannot act by myself; I judge as I am bidden, and my verdict is just, because my aim is not my own will, but the will of him who sent me.”
What big decisions lie ahead of you in the New Year? Need some good advice? Step aside from all the rush of this season and spend some extra time in prayer as Jesus did.
