Holding it together

The advent devotion I wrote for today that appears in the Hollywood United Methodist devotional booklet:  

Hebrews 1:1-4

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Sometimes I feel like everything’s held together by that frosting you use on gingerbread houses. Yes, from the outside, it looks like cement. It holds on the red hots and the gumdrops and the M & Ms while keeping your cookie walls standing upright but add a little too much water or not enough powdered sugar and the whole bowl is lost and nothing will stay where it should. And sometimes I feel like life is that way.

Add a little (or a lot) of stress, a job change or loss, a strained friendship or broken relationship, money worries or even a feeling of separation from God and voila! the walls of the gingerbread house that is our life start to crumble and sag. But that’s where this reminder, this passage from Hebrews comes into play. “He holds everything together by what he says – powerful words!” (Hebrews, The Message)

God’s powerful words: he knows what to say to hold everything, including our lives, together. He created us, he created Jesus, he is the reason we celebrate Christmas and Easter and everything else in between. His words are why we are what we are and do what we do. We live to worship him and he will hold us together.

There’s this great book by Max Lucado, Cosmic Christmas, that I read over and over each year about this time. It’s a telling of the Christmas story from the angels’ point of view. But not just the Christmas story – the Christmas war. The fight that took place between good and evil that led, ultimately, to Jesus Christ’s birth. That story, that imagery of a war taking place, gives me hope. God’s words give me hope. Hope that life is worth living and love is worth taking a chance on. Hope that this advent season, as we all prepare for the remembrance of this little baby that God sent as a physical reminder of his love, we will remember not just the stories but the words. And how they are with us all year long, forever and ever, holding us together.

Dear Lord, please help us to hear your words this Christmas season and to be comforted and enriched by them. Amen.