God's glory dwelling among us

John 1 : 1 - 18

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us...

Today is the last day of the year, it is part of the 'holiday' season and somehow it is the time when we take stock of our lives. It is also the day when people 'welcome' the new year with much party revelry and high spirits. But perhaps the silent hope of each person is that the new year will bring better things than the old.....

The Gospel is good news for every season and today's reading gives ample evidence of truths that should mark our new year, every year, with hopeful anticipation. Perhaps it is easy to say this glibly - especially if we are not the ones to lose jobs and become hit really hard by the economic recession. But if God makes his dwelling among us - it does change the way we look at 'difficult' situations - nothing will be the same because God's 'glory' is encountered in the face of Christ, whom we can get to know (prayerfully) through the Gospel accounts.

Over lunch today with a couple of friends one of them asked if I make any 'new year resolutions'. She said she stopped making them because they all never got off the ground anyway! I don't make such 'resolutions' myself because in my experience, they come more naturally and have a greater chance to succeed when we feel really moved to do something, and that could be anytime during the year! Often it comes at points of transition when we realize that certain things just have to change - no going back to the same, and perhaps we seek God's grace to help us along.

At this point in my life, I would like to live more gratefully - because I know that with each year of life, new uncertainties emerge. At this stage, I know my human frailty better. And I am learning to accept it - first of all in the physical realm. As a friend remarked the other day, we all really need 'new bodies'.....for medical disorders arise in frequency. Thus the "maintenance checks" I am having these couple of weeks. Through it all, I hope and pray to focus more and more on the light of Christ, receiving it, dwelling in it and being a bearer of it, in all circumstances.