Last Sunday, Benjamin sent me this photo of the snow on the campus at Brevard. Over a foot of snow created a winter wonderland and a change to exam schedules. Many of you who moved from the north don’t want to see any more snow, because you have seen too much snow in places where life goes on when it snows. However, I’m from the southern mountains of Western North Carolina, where this kind of snowfall happens once or twice a year and is gone in a few days. For just a day or two, everything else is put on hold except for snuggling up with a mug of hot chocolate and a nice view from a comfy chair or for kids to enjoy playing in the snow.
I love to wake up to one of these snows, to step out onto the porch early in the morning before others are out. In the early morning it is still quiet, that unusual hushed stillness that accompanies the blanket of snow that hides the bare spots in the yard, makes everything glisten in the sunlight, and provides a perfect backdrop for cardinals. The occasional to rare snowfall gives me the opportunity to stand in the same place but see the world differently.
At Christmas, we carefully transform our houses, our yards, our churches with beautiful and symbolic decorations. We rearrange the furniture to make room for a tree inside our houses. At some point during all the hustle and bustle of this season, I hope that we get to take just a minute to enjoy the transformation. For me, the view from my recliner changes from a beige wall to the family Christmas tree.
At Christmas, we also see a the joy of giving and receiving gifts with fresh eyes. As several of us took gifts to the door, Ed Curlee’s truck was filled to overflowing with Angel Tree gifts. Regular work stopped for just a few minutes to carry gifts out and to celebrate your generosity.
Our Christmas perspective changes, because we are reminded that God generously offered us grace by sending Jesus to be with us. God chose to see the world from our perspective rather than just a heavenly perspective. We realize that we have received a gift that we did not earn or deserve, but salvation through grace, the presence and power of God.
The openness to seeing things differently is something that I would like to keep all year long. We need to see that God loves us enough to become God-with-us then and now. We need to see the beauty of people caring for others. We need to see others as individuals just like the careful gift-giver seeks to pick out just the right gift for each person. Benjamin may be one of the best people to shop with because he invests time and thought into finding just the right gift that connects to what is most important to the recipient. We need to have our eyes opened to truly see others as God’s beloved children.
This year, I pray that we will keep that openness to seeing the best in others, to giving them the benefit of the doubt, and to caring even when we don’t understand why they are the way they are. We live in a world where we too often decide what makes others “them” rather than part of “us”. I need to step back from my usual view, listen, and try to understand rather than make decisions based on my personal perspective. In other words, I need to look as people just like I look at the yard after a snowfall – seeking to see the best rather than their faults.
In January, we will have an opportunity to shift our perspective through a poverty simulation. This activity will help us understand some of the challenges faced by the working poor. Participants will become part of a typical family situation and try to make it through a month. Some of you have learned from experience how to stretch the resources through a month. However, as our systems have changed, so has navigating the resources and obstacles for those just trying to make ends meet. On January 12, 2019, up to 80 participants can join in this experience. Since space is limited, we need for people to sign up for this event. After January 30, we will open the registration up to other congregations. The fee to help cover some of the cost and lunch will be $10. If you would like to volunteer to help with this event or participate in the poverty simulation, please contact Pastor Laura (lwhitt@surfsideumc.org ). For more information on the poverty simulation, please visit Our Eyes Wide Open website (http://oewo.org/simulation/poverty-simulation/ ).
Let’s keep seeking to see the world with eyes that see the beauty in a snow day, the awe in God’s creation, the wonder at God-with-us, and the good in others.
Merry Christmas,
Pastor Laura