Advent word - awaken

It's easy sometimes to live in a bubble, going from moment to moment, task to task, obligation to obligation. I'm not always truly awake to what's going on around me- the joys, the needs, the presence of God. In this final week of advent can I try to be awake to the things I might otherwise miss?

Jesus calls us to live into the fullness of our humanity, to embrace what we, in our brokenness, experience as physical, psychic, or spiritual limitations. Jesus urges that, rather than seeking to be cured of our limitations, we ask God to heal us in them, and waken us to the spiritual gifts hidden in them.

-Br. Jonathan Maury

21st December

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. -Luke 2:20

The shepherds have been in the actual presence of God and they know something amazing has taken place.
This is one of my favourite hymns:

I Stand Amazed

I stand amazed in the presence 
Of Jesus the Nazarene
And I wonder how He could love me,
A sinner condemned, unclean.

How marvelous, how wonderful
And my song shall ever be.
How marvelous, how wonderful
Is my Saviour's love for me. 

For me it was in the garden He prayed,
"Not my will, but thine"
He had no tears for His own griefs,
But sweat drops of blood for mine.

How marvelous, how wonderful
And my song shall ever be.
How marvelous, how wonderful
Is my Saviour's love for me. 

He took my sins and my sorrows, 
He made them His very own;
He bore the burden to Calvary,
And suffered and died alone.

How marvelous, how wonderful
And my song shall ever be.
How marvelous, how wonderful
Is my Saviour's love for me. 

When with the ransomed in glory 
His face I at last shall see,
'Twill be my joy through the ages,
To sing of His love for me.

How marvelous, how wonderful
And my song shall ever be.
How marvelous, how wonderful
Is my Saviour's love for me.