Slow Down - December 15, 2005

A TV commercial for a particular automobile features a high speed family. While everything else in the picture seems to be in real time speed and motion, the high speed family is a blur when it moves. They dash between school and work situations and then off to recreational things pausing only long enough to tout the virtues of the vehicle made for today's fast paced family.

And boy, are we ever faced paced. Every place we go and everything we do is in a hurry. We even have to hurry when we are on vacation. When our household had three high schoolers, their schedules were almost over-whelming. Sometimes they clashed so much it was hard to keep even one of them happy. Often they had to be at school in the morning at three different times and came home in the evening at three different times.

Speed is an emotional and spiritual killer when it comes to the Christmas season. Even in preparation for the first Christmas, God had Mary, Jesus' mother, slow down (read Luke 1:39-45). Things started moving fast when Mary became pregnant by God's Spirit. This teenager was suddenly facing a drastic change in her life. She got away for while by providentially visiting her cousin Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist. You get a feeling of relaxed retreat when you read this.

One of the reasons so many of us get so we don't enjoy the holidays is because we don't take time to reflect on the birth of Christ and all that meant to us. Start today taking time each day before rushing off into the mayhem, to prayerfully reflect on God's great gift of love He shared with us through the birth of His Son Jesus. SLOW DOWN!

Contributed by Michael Ullrich