Sunday, December
18, 2022
A CHRISTMAS MEDITATION!
Ps 104:33-34
33 I will sing unto the Lord as long
as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
34 My meditation of him shall be
sweet: I will be glad in the Lord.
I’m
remembering a past Christmas season when
my wife and I boldly ventured toward Christmas-shopping-land. Once again, I
found myself in a favorite Christian bookstore and my wife and I had gotten separated.
Like a lost little boy, I knew that if I took a comfortable seat near the door,
I would not exhaust myself by searching for her. Eventually she would find me,
and all would be well.
I sat in one
of my favorite chairs between the coffee pot and the Christmas tree. From this vantage point I could see
shoppers coming and going. Just in front of me was a table full of small bins
loaded with what I call Christian junk. Although it was early in the shopping
season, one young lady seemed to be already gripped with shopper’s panic. She
was “coon fingering” the junk. She picked up a stick-on plastic chrome fish symbol
and then replaced it. Next, she picked up a cheap bracelet of braided string
and beads but that also would not do. She was shopping for stocking stuffers,
and it was clear that her heart was not in it.
That’s when
it happened! I began to meditate! Meditation is the art of mulling things over. It is
observation but much more than observation. It is the intentional sorting of
information and placing things in their proper perspective. It is the reason teachers
scold bright students for “daydreaming.” When that happens it is, in my
opinion, the teacher that is at fault for not understanding.
Charles
Haddon Spurgeon tells this short story about the wisdom of a little girl. "How is it, my dear," inquired
a schoolteacher of a little girl, "that you do not understand this simple
thing?"
"I don't know,"
she answered, with a perplexed look, "but I sometimes think I have so many
things to learn that I do not have enough time to understand." And so, it
is with the rest of us. “We are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge
of the truth!” (See 2 Timothy 3:7)
The word
“meditation,” as used above is the Hebrew word siyach
and it literally means “babbling or prayer talk.” Yes, prayer talk is the
correct meaning of meditation. It is when I pull away from doing to observe
what is being done. In meditation, I allow my mind to join with God in informal
prayer which is much like conversation. I open my mind to hear his opinions and
conclusions. I think it is like two old men on a park bench. Both
are seasoned and experienced and both comment on the world as it walks by. At
the end of the day understanding has grown.
I like to
sit, observe people, and think. I understand more by doing that than reading books. I like
the quiet times and quiet places where God doesn’t have to shout when He talks
to me, and I don’t have to strain to hear Him. The Bible calls it a “closet”
but sometimes it is just a comfortable chair between the coffee pot and the
Christmas tree.
Ps 19:14
14 Let the words of my mouth, and
the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength,
and my redeemer. AMEN
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