Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Slow Down


I write this advent reflection with two feet of snow outside my house. Yes, the city has come to a partial standstill. And not just any city - the capital city of Scotland. The airport has been closed more than its been opened for the last four days. The main Forth river crossing, that carries thousands of vehicles a day between Fife and Edinburgh was closed until 3pm. Schools are on their fourth day of closure and one drives a car slowly through dirty snow that has not yet become slush because every few hours another few centimetres falls afresh.

S....l....o....w d....o....w....n

With this background, I trudged for 45 minutes through the snow to spend some time unpacking the humanity and divinity of Jesus with the students on our church's year-out programme.

I found that the snow slowed me down. I wasn't rushing around the house to get kids out to school, as school wasn't on. I wasn't running for the bus, as the buses weren't running along my street. I had to walk slowly to get my boots up and over the drifting snow. I wasn't bolting from the morning seminar to my next meeting, as my next meeting wasn't happening. I had time for lunch. I had time to talk to my colleagues.

S....l....o....w d....o....w....n

John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

God became flesh and lived among us.
God became human and came to live among humankind.
Jesus, the Son of God,who existed before the world began, came to live among US.
God wants me to see something of his glory and I really want to see it.

Slowing down has brought to me this week a fresh revelation of what this means.

My contribution to this blog is therefore a simple but very personal one.

What might slowing down mean for you who read this?

S....l....o....w d....o....w....n

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