December 16

Your Word is near,

O Lord our God,

your grace is near.

Come to us, then,

with mildness and power.

Do not let us be deaf to you,

but make us receptive and open

to Jesus Christ your son,

who will come to look for us and save us

today and every day

for ever and ever.

[From: Your Word is Near, by Huub Oosterhuis]

December 9

If you want to be happy then make those around you happy.

Husbands, if you want to be happy then make your wife happy. You didn’t marry so that she would make you happy. You married her to make her happy. Wives, if you want to be happy then make your husband happy. You didn’t get married so that he would make you happy. You married him to make him happy.

We all need to realize that we don’t get happiness. Rather it comes to us when we make those around us happy.

December 2

What is your Advent going to be all about? You might think of this --

In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things came into being, not one thing came into being except through him. What has come into being in him was life, life that was the light of men; and light shines in darkness, and darkness could not overpower it. And the Word became flesh… (John 1ff.)

-- and then ask yourself: “How can I let God’s presenting and expression of Himself in our humanity as Christ Jesus be more fully brought about in my own humanity?”