Clear Reflections

I enjoy January.  December flies by in a flurry of busy activity all leading up to the celebration of Christmas.  It is wonderful with its warmth, tradition, expressions of love, and the focus on the gift we have received in Christ.  But it is also exhausting.  While my children mourned the day that I took down the Christmas tree and tucked the decorations all back into their boxes, I sighed with some relief.  It’s nice to start fresh. Putting away the decorations allows the chance to clean and re-decorate my house in a way that I hope makes my little family feel at home. 

 January brings the beginning of a new calendar year, which we traditionally associate with New Year resolutions.  That’s not so bad.  I really associate it with recovery: recovery from the busyness of the holidays and the chance to refocus a bit.  Typically speaking January also brings its fair share of sickness.  If you live in the northern hemisphere of the earth, head colds, influenza, and stomach bugs tend to run rampant in the cold weather of January.  While sitting at home with feverish, coughing, or vomiting children is not always pleasant, it does in its own way allow for some rest.  It frees my calendar of social obligations and helps me to catch up some household projects, re-start healthy routines, and re-focus my devotional life.  And let’s face it, after the crazy social schedule of the holidays, the binge eating of Christmas cookies, and the total immersion of our family into Advent study it’s a welcome and necessary change.  Not because those things were bad (well maybe the cookies) but because they are only sustainable and intended for a certain time-period. 

So I am breathing deep (not literally cause it’s pretty polluted outside here in January).  But, that in itself, provides another motivation to stay indoors and rest so I can’t be entirely unthankful for it although I will never like it.  With my extra weekend time, I am finally getting us completely settled into this new-to-us home, working on establishing some healthy eating and exercise routines, stocking us up on more natural cleaning products, finishing our 2018 photo-album, and also trying harder to read a bit more.  For January, in addition to my quiet time on SRT, I am reading some parenting books (1 from a Christian worldview and 1 that is not).

Since I spend my days at a school and am a mom to 3 amazing humans, my time revolves around children.  It’s actually very rare that I am not with a child of some age.  This year at school my role has shifted a bit and has increased my opportunities to speak truth into the lives of these children and their parents.  Much of it is practical in nature and revolves around things like healthy life habits, child protection, manners, conversation skills, stress management, and digital citizenship.  But I have also been a good deal of freedom to speak deeper truths.  I consider it a precious gift to be able to play a tiny part in the lives of these young people.  They are all so different in personality, likes/dislikes, family situations, nationalities, and even languages.  But they are all imprinted with the likeness of the divine and I find that it emerges in the most surprising of ways and at unexpected times.  Beyond that, I go home every day with 3 of those blessings and have the even deeper privilege of being called mom.  That role is also a gift of immeasurable value.  They look to me with such high expectations; that I can find anything no matter how small and well hidden, that I have the answer to every question, and that I can fix every problem.  And of course, I can’t.  My goal is to seize those moments and be always ready to point them to hope. 

But I am continuing to learn just how amazing and active the H.S. is.  So many times over these past months, both in the lives and hearts of my own children, and also in the lives and hearts of others, he has created an opening, a questioning, or tenderness at moments when I have least expected.  It always makes me smile and also leaves me in awe because it’s never my words, my plan, or my wisdom that creates the open door to hope.  It is always Him.  I just need to be ready at that moment to point back to Him with my words, my actions, and my heart.  Just to be the reflection. 

But to be that reflection, the image needs to be cleared of me so that it is not my face in the looking glass, but rather the reflection of the divine.  As John said, “He must become more so I must become less.”  That is hard.  In my deep-rooted humanity, I want other people to see me, admire me, be inspired by me.  But that will get them (and me) nowhere fast.  I have struggled hard with that tension this semester.  I slip so easily and usually without noticing into giving my own advice or feeling pleased with myself for a job well done. 

So I am gratefully enjoying the peace of January and the opportunity to dig deeper into the word and fix my gaze on Him.  Only when my eyes are fixed on Him will I be able to clearly reflect or really even dimly reflect His grace.  Thank goodness His glory is bright enough to pierce the darkness of my dimly reflective surface and shed light onto waiting hearts.  The light of the world is the answer to every darkness we face, from within and without.  That is true for me, and every life that crosses my path. 

John 1:4-5 “In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

*Because of where we live and the ever-increasing tensions, I must choose my words and my audience very carefully.   Please keep that in mind as you read and if you decide to share.