Not So Pure

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God”    Matthew 5:8

If seeing God requires a pure heart, then I’m afraid that I probably miss most of the opportunities to see Him.  Especially since He seems to come in the every day situations and unexpected moments of our lives.  My assessment of my every day level of heart purity is usually quite low.

Christmas time seems to be ripe with opportunities to see Him.  I am always concerned that I will miss many of those simply because my heart is not quite where He wants it to be.  So, I try to spend some extra time at the beginning of the Christmas season to renew my surrender; to let Christ have an open door to more fully purify my heart; and to accept His righteousness as my own.

This is what I longed for seven years ago, and what I long for today.

           WHEN HE COMES

It is ten days before Christmas in a year when things were to slow down.

But they really didn’t.

Life was to be simpler, but it really wasn’t.

My travel was to become lighter, but it hasn’t.

This week my Christmas joy was ignited

By seeing my daughter’s face as she and her choir sang His praise…

By watching her sister watch her sing…

By seeing our girls, now women, love each other’s child.

As my heart begins to celebrate, my mind recalls a decade of changes.

Half of it so brightly lit by a sunshine face named Emma.

Even brighter now as Colton’s fire adds to our family’s glow.

A decade in which:

I walked where Christ once walked.

Death grabbed close friends.

My mirror proclaimed the passage of time;

Reading glasses were needed,

But somehow my vision was acutely sharpened

To the value of my lady;

To the simplicity of daily choices between self and others;

To the pure joy of being Pop.

Contentment arrived,

But freedom from the insecurity of aging did not.

Dreams became reality.

A business started, spawned three more.

Daughters and their men found stages on which to perform.

But distraction from what is real can come deftly disguised as opportunity…

Just another part of Satan’s Big Lie.

The week to celebrate Christ’s coming is at hand.

But we still have gifts to buy.

Food must be prepared for parties.

Customers need last minute orders.

Problems with vendors in China could be resolved with a quick trip.

And I promised to put the flashing snowman out back on the deck.

But this week demands that I put all this stuff in perspective.

Can I, this week, prepare my heart to see The Child?

And our home to receive Him?

Can my heart possibly be pure enough for me to see God;

And know that He may come when a little guy jumps on his Pop’s lap?

When I’m planning the purchase of that special gift?

As I watch a flash mob’s Messiah on YouTube?

Or when I rest with Diane by the fire watching our tree?

Only if I let Him do His work in me now,

Will I recognize Christ

When He comes.

…………. December 2010

Now it’s Christmas season 2017.

Will I see Him in our family gatherings?

At the Christmas Concert?  In my devotions?

In the faces of people I don’t really know, who need the Child Gift?

Will you?

Will we prepare our hearts and ask God to open our minds…that we might see Christmas through the eyes of a pure heart?

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