{"id":8453,"date":"2003-12-11T22:34:14","date_gmt":"2003-12-12T03:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/?p=8453"},"modified":"2011-07-06T08:28:11","modified_gmt":"2011-07-06T13:28:11","slug":"3395","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2003\/12\/11\/3395\/","title":{"rendered":"Advent Devotion: Keeping Our Hearts Focused on God"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO, IL (December 11, 2003)\u00a0 – This Advent Season, Covenant Communications\u00a0 has been posting devotionals taken from some of the than 250 church\u00a0 newsletters and email updates we receive each month from throughout the\u00a0 Evangelical Covenant Church. Today’s comes from Harold Larsen, interim\u00a0 pastor of Life Covenant Church, Monroe, Washington.<\/p>\n

There’s snow in the air today so there is no denying it. “The Holiday\u00a0 Season” has arrived – that special time that begins with Thanksgiving\u00a0 Day and electrifies until Christmas, then slowly fades away into a New\u00a0 Year. As a child it seemed it would never come! I couldn’t wait until we\u00a0 climbed into Dad’s old Chevy, drove across town, onto the ferry and\u00a0 then, “Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house we’d\u00a0 go…”<\/p>\n
Mom was one of 12 children. Most were married and had families, and\u00a0 everyone was sure to be there! We city kids would rush outside to enjoy\u00a0 the farm, its animals, the barn with its haymow to tumble in, and the\u00a0 beachfront to hunt for crabs and skip rocks across the water.<\/p>\n
By the time dinner was ready we were famished! Soon, both the large\u00a0 dining room table and the long narrow kitchen table were surrounded by\u00a0 our hungry clan, eyes bulging as we gazed at tables laden with\u00a0 absolutely everything the traditional Thanksgiving feast should have.<\/p>\n
It was the height of the Depression, so meals like that happened only\u00a0 twice a year, at Thanksgiving and Christmas. The sight and the smells\u00a0 beckoned us to dig in! But no one would think of touching a thing until\u00a0 Grandfather bowed and poured out his heartfelt thanks for, what to him\u00a0 was, clear evidence of the abundance of God’s generous grace! Not that\u00a0 it had come easily.<\/p>\n
Each family had scrapped and saved to help make those moments what they\u00a0 were for all of us. But we only could because God had provided. Thanks\u00a0 for food. And for family, oh yes, for family! And for this country that\u00a0 had welcomed them as immigrants and had provided opportunities that had\u00a0 made these moments possible. But there was more. So much more!<\/p>\n
Poorly educated by today’s standards but truly wise, Grandpa knew<\/em> where our blessings really come from! Grandpa knew God intimately and\u00a0 truly loved him. Christmas prayers focused more on a babe in a manger\u00a0 than Thanksgiving Day prayers did. But God and his grace, rather than\u00a0 the “things” he provides were always<\/em> the focus of Grandpa’s\u00a0 prayers, because the awesome goodness of God was always the focus of his\u00a0 thoughts. And, when we had all become quiet and bowed our heads and he\u00a0 began to talk to God, we knew<\/em> God was there with us listening!<\/p>\n
I have never forgotten those prayers offered by a truly grateful man of\u00a0 God! Nor, I’m sure, have any of the others who stood, so aware of God’s\u00a0 presence as he prayed.<\/p>\n
Many years have passed since those simpler days. So much has changed.\u00a0 There’s far more to distract us from God’s bountiful gift of food,\u00a0 family and home, and, yes, of the babe in the manger, the Christ child,\u00a0 who came to make a way for us to gather at the ultimate banquet, where\u00a0 God himself would provide the food. Food for life eternal.<\/p>\n
Can we live amid all the distractions that will come in the weeks just\u00a0 ahead, and still keep our hearts focused on God? Oh yes we can. We know\u00a0 we can. But only<\/em> if we make, and keep, a commitment to do so!<\/p>\n
Will you? Will I? With all the shopping and decorating and cooking and\u00a0 partying to be done, will we? Please pray for me and the rest of our\u00a0 church family and I’ll pray for you. Our children and grandchildren,\u00a0 too, deserve to carry treasured memories of hearing us offer prayers of\u00a0 praise and Thanksgiving that come from hearts so conscious of God’s\u00a0 awesome grace. They too will know that not the gifts or the food, but he\u00a0 is our focus this holiday season.<\/p>\n
To read devotionals posted earlier, visit the following:<\/p>\n