NURTURE OUR HEARTS IN LOVE: REARRANGE

MONDAY, CHRISTMAS DAY: LOVE

A blessed Christmas to you all! Jesus has been born–and born once again in our hearts! The Advent season has come to an end, but we will continue working on our heart-rooms to increase space for the Love of God revealed to us in Christ Jesus.

As you look around your room this week, how might you rearrange your spirit to receive and share more of this Love? Would you rearrange your heart to accommodate more understanding, hospitality, generosity, compassion? Would you find more time to serve, allow more space to listen?

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In his beautiful book, Living the Quaker Way, Philip Gulley shares one question that I find helpful for my rearranging. As a child, he was traveling on vacation with his family and was given a bottle of soda to enjoy. When he had finished, he tossed the empty bottle out of the car window. His mom then asked, “What if everyone threw their trash out the window? What kind of world would we have?” Philip then goes on to describe the Quaker way of making community a priority…

To be human is to bear in mind one’s connectedness and responsibility to others…

It is the language of imagination, of reflection, of always wondering what the world would be like if everyone did what you were doing, be it good or ill. To be a Quaker is to always understand yourself and your actions in terms of the world. It is an invitation to reflect, not simply react, to keep before you the question, “What would the world be like if everyone did what I am doing?”¹

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So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the child lying in the manger. (Luke 2:16)

On this Christmas Day, we happily welcome Jesus into our heart-rooms once again, and we can ask for his help as we continue to make our hearts more like his–filled with compassion, generosity, kindness, devotion. With humility, sacrifice, service. With hope, peace, joy, and love.

With every quality that will help make the world as he would like it to be.

¹Gulley, Philip. Living the Quaker Way: Discover the Hidden Happiness in the Simple Life. Convergent Books, 2013.
Bible verse is NRSVUE, found at https://www.biblegateway.com/
Photo by Karen