Musings and Contemplations

Luke 2:10-11 ESV
Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 NRSV
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. What gain have the workers from their toil? I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover, he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil. I know that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; God has done this, so that all should stand in awe before him. That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already is; and God seeks out what has gone by.

Birth and death.
Seedtime and harvest.
Sickness and health.
Tearing down and building up.
Weeping and laughter.
Mourning and dancing.
Discarding and gathering.
Embracing and pushing away.
Finding and losing.
Keeping and giving away.
Tearing and binding.
Silence and speech.
Love and hatred.
War and peace.
A life of incessant contrasts and seemingly endless futility; sensing that God has a plan for our earthly existence, “yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”
Good news!
God has given us this sense of “eternity in our hearts” to draw us to look to him for meaning and purpose. Our earthly experience is God’s grace-gift for us to enjoy and make good use of; to “eat and drink and take pleasure” in all we do, knowing that He exerts sovereign control over all that is and happens.
More good news – of great joy!
God took upon himself our human existence and became one of us to make possible an eternal relationship with himself. “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

WESTMINSTER SHORTER CATECHISM
Questions #86 and #87

What is faith in Jesus Christ?
Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation as he is offered to us in the gospel.

What is repentance unto life?
Repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience.

THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me nine ladies dancing.

The Ninth Day of Christmas: Nine Ladies Dancing
The nine ladies dancing represents the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.[1]

Merciful Lord, the comforter and teacher of your faithful people, increase in your church the desires which you have given, and confirm the hearts of those who hope in you by enabling them to understand the depth of your promises, that all of your adopted sons may even now behold, with the eyes of faith, and patiently wait for, the light which as yet you do not openly manifest; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.[2]

Turn, Turn, Turn

[1] https://www.dynamiccatholic.com/advent/twelve-days-of-christmas.html
[2] A prayer by Samuel Johnson, found in O Come, O Come Emmanuel by Jonathan Gibson, p. 359.