Present

Present

As we continue through this Advent season and look forward to all of the food and fun of Christmas, it is easy to be distracted. We hurry to buy presents and anxiously wait opening the ones under the tree. But, in the back of our minds, we all know that the presents are not what Christmas is about. We are told that the true meaning of Christmas is the birth of Jesus and peace and love and hope. While all of that is completely true, it can be hard to see how to live out that meaning. How can I make my relationships grow in this season? How can my relationship with God grow? How do I live in peace and hope and love? How does the birth of Jesus impact my life right NOW?

I’ve been asking these questions. Lately, I have spent some days feeling lonely without my family and my friends from the States; I have just been wanting another person to be present with me. Not to talk for hours or to go on some great adventure, but just to sit on the couch with me and share the popcorn. And then, last night, as I was sitting at the piano waiting for my husband to get home from work, I started musing on the word “present”.

The Oxford Dictionary lists several definitions for the word, “present.” Here a few of the most common ones:

* (v) To introduce (someone) to someone else         Introduction

* (v) To show or offer (something) for others to scrutinize or consider      Invitation

* (n) Existing or occurring in a place        Involvement

* (n) (usually the present) The period of time now occurring       Immediacy

* (n) A thing given to someone as a gift: “a Christmas present       Intimacy

The more I looked at the word’s meaning, the more I began to see a pattern. I thought of the development of my friendship with my best friend and of my relationship with my husband. They both started with an introduction, a beginning, a first impression. (In the case of my best friend, we knew each other since we were babies so I can’t remember a beginning!) Then, there was an invitation to continue the relationship. My husband asked me to be his girlfriend, then to be his wife; my friend never told me she wanted me to go away, so I guess that’s an invitation too.J Once we had a relationship, we spent time together in the same place—present, involved, together. We knew what was going on in each other’s lives and we were there to help and to just hang out; there had to be and still has to be involvement, or the relationship will grow apart. The closer we get to each other, the more immediate each other’s needs become: when my husband calls me for something, I’m the first one there. When my best friend calls me for something, I try to be the first one there too. When people you care about deeply are in need of anything, their needs come far before any more casual acquaintance. And somehow, in the middle of all of the times spent enjoying each other’s company and being there for each other, an intimacy grows. We give each other gifts of appreciation, for birthdays, for Christmas, for special celebration; we should give our time and resources willingly, not expecting anything in return.

                It’s incredible, really..to see how every small moment really does matter. To recognize that every time we are truly present, we give the relationships in our life a chance to grow and thrive.
                However, what’s more incredible is to see that this is EXACTLY how God builds a relationship with us. In the glorious act of creation, God reveals himself and introduces us to His beauty and power and love. That is the beginning of his pursuit of us. Then He offers us an invitation to know Him through His word and through talking to Him at any time in prayer. He seeks to be involved in our lives—to comfort us, to meet our needs, and to answer prayers. He always hears at exactly the moment we pray and need His presence, and He is always working things for our good. The more we give our time and our energies to knowing Him, the more we praise Him for His glory and gifts, the more He gives us knowledge of Himself and the blessings that go with it.

When I see that the way my relationships with my husband, family, and friends have grown is so similar to how God has continually pursued my heart through relationship, Advent takes on new meaning. Christmas takes on new meaning. I begin to understand that the greatest gift of all is God Himself—and that is what we were given on the day of Christ’s birth. God came to us! He became one of us! And what was the point? To have a one-on-one relationship with us. The manger Jesus was laid in was the giftbox that no one ever expected...and the precious One inside it far surpassed the value of any other gift God could have given. A gift—an indication of intimacy; the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus proved that God had already done everything He could to offer an eternity-altering relationship to us. He created the world and us, He spoke to us, He provided for us, He answered us, and finally, He gave everything He had for us.

What else could the Lord do? How else could He pursue humankind and each of us? As I think about the presents under the tree and the presents I will soon be wrapping up for my nephews, I want to think MORE about how to be present. How to open myself up to deep relationships with the people in my life. How to respond to God’s desire for a relationship with me by just being with Him and getting to know who He is so I can be a true daughter, a true disciple, a true servant.

This Christmas, I am challenging myself (and praying for God’s help) to form new relationships, to build up and bridge older ones, to live out God’s pursuit of me in my marriage, and to respond to God’s call by knowing Him more. I pray that this Christmas you get to see relationships with others and with God grow and change in beautiful ways—and that you embrace the chance to be fully present wherever you are.