Come and See!

“Come and you will see.” John 1:39

In U.P. High School, a couple of men from Gideons International came and spoke to my class about reading the Bible. Before they gave us these really cute Bibles, they made us promise to read it. I promised, but I stopped a few chapters into it because of some passages I heartily disagreed with. I enjoyed my life too much to “hate it”. (John 12:25)

In U.P. College, I was invited to join a Campus Crusade for Christ group. I thought the group was composed of dull students who didn't have friends, but I liked the Australian lady who invited me out for ice cream. She was the one who would say, "Come and see." 

After college, I remember that it was my mom who would invite me and my siblings to all the Christian rallies and Bible Studies. It did not matter if it was Catholic or not. I do not know how many times we went to the front to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. I cannot count how many times I joined a Life in the Spirit seminar and was prayed over. After one of those baptisms in the Holy Spirit, the Bible came alive for me. I would read and read and mark almost every line with a yellow pencil. Sometimes I felt like the words would jump out, and I could read even if it was dark! 

Lord, thank You for all those people who said come and see in different ways. I have, through the years, seen Your face, and heard Your voice! May I also invite others to experience the fullness of life You offer me every single day! 

God’s Children

“Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed.” 1 John 3:2

Most of the time we do not believe that God made us to be amazing! He really planned that we be lights in the darkness, a clarion call for His good news of love, peace and joy! 

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate,” Marianne Williamson wrote in her book A Return to Love. “Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.” I’m not particularly a fan of Williamson who has a tendency to be new-agey, but I like what she says in this quote which has been frequently attributed to Nelson Mandela in graduation speeches. 

We ARE children of God and He has made us for His own. Whatever we are feeling right now, our situation may be most depressing, but we must not lose heart, as St. Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, “Though our outer self is wasting away, yet our inner self is being renewed day by day. For our light and temporary troubles are producing for us an eternal glory that far outweighs our afflictions. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.…” We may be made of weak clay and we often feel inadequate, but we have this treasure God placed in us, this all-surpassing power and grace to be overcomers if we tap into Him. 

C.S. Lewis wrote in his book The Weight of Glory, “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”

How overwhelming to realize that that is God’s planned destiny for us!

Plant Flowers!

“I am a voice crying out in the desert, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ just as the prophet Isaiah said.” John 1:23

In Isaiah 40:3, we read the prophecy, “A voice of one calling: "In the wilderness prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” From birth, John the Baptist recognized Jesus as the Messiah. In Luke chapter 1, Mary visited Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb for joy! 

When John was born, amidst amazement and wonder, for Elizabeth was so old, his father Zechariah proclaimed, “And you, my little son, will be called the prophet of the Most High, because you will prepare the way for the Lord.” (Luke 1:76)

We too are “prophets” of God. We are called to make straight His path, to prepare for His 2nd coming. Our birth was not foretold, but each and every day, we are given a chance to bring God’s Word to life in someone’s heart. 

Of all the new year’s messages that circulated, the one that touched me the most, were not the fantastic fireworks, or the exploding gifs. It was a graphic of two quite ugly monsters. One said, “Why so optimistic about the new year? What do you think it will bring? Everything seems so messed up!” We can certainly relate to the question, can’t we!? 

“I think it will bring flowers,” the other monster replied. “Yes, how come?” “Because I am planting flowers.” And sure enough the monster had a trowel, seeds and a watering pot, and he was digging a hole. Instead of planting pessimism, let’s brighten up our little corner of the world. If we want peace, plant peace. If we want hope, let’s plant hope. If we want blessing, bless others. 

We do not need to foretell future events to be a “prophet” today. We need only to tell the truth, and what better truth is there to proclaim than the good news? If we plant seeds today, they will bring forth good fruit. 

Father, thank You for all You've given me- all the charisms, gifts, talents, resources. These are all from You. May I use them, like John, to point to You! May I not be corrupted by the ways of the world, and use what You have given me to only benefit myself! 

The Grandeur of God

"The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you! The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace!" Numbers 6:24-26

Here is the prayer that the priests of Israel would pray over their people. We can claim this for ourselves because Jesus is our High Priest. So this is my prayer for you and me for a blessed 2025! 

This blessing is the oldest known biblical text that has been found. Amulets with these verses have been unearthed in graves dating from the First Temple Period. This is how God instructed Moses for Aaron to bless the Israelites. 

During the Old Testament times, only adult males descended from Aaron could perform this priestly blessing. But as Christians, we are all priests by virtue of baptism, and we can give this benediction to each other!

These words can be so familiar to us that we can take it for granted. However, if we study the original Hebrew, the blessing would read like this:

“Yahweh will kneel before you presenting gifts and will guard you with a hedge of protection. Yahweh will illuminate the wholeness of His being toward you bringing order and He will beautify you. Yahweh will lift up His wholeness of being and look upon you and He will set in place all you need to be whole and complete.” 

Isn't that amazing? Why should the Lord, King of the Universe kneel before us? Quite absurd! But not if we realize He is our Father who loves us. When we were small, our daddies would kneel down before us, go down to our level, to talk to us. When our dad saw us approach, his face would light up. So does our God appreciate it when we approach Him and spend time with Him. 

For the start of this new year, let us claim this blessing for ourselves and those close to us! Like a little child, let us greet this brand new year with excitement, without fear or anxiety, because our God is in control. He is our Father, and we can expect Him to kneel down, and smile, hold out His arms, and show us His favor! 

Here is an excerpt from Ronald Modras’ “Ignatian Humanism”  which reads:

“…we can have an experience of union and familiarity with God no matter the distractions of our work or the banality of our lives. Here is the basis for finding God not only in all things but in the flurry of everyday life. Nothing human is merely human. No common labor is merely common. Classrooms, hospitals, and artists’ studios are sacred spaces. No secular pursuit of science is merely secular. Like Ignatius after his experience at the Cardoner River, we see things differently. The world is charged with the grandeur of God.”

Indeed, if we find God in all things, even in the distresses and banalities of every day life, truly we will see the grandeur of God. 

Thank You Father for favoring all creation with a ceaseless, relentless flow of blessing and grace. For being with us in our ordinariness and ultimately uniting us with You in splendor. 

A blessed 2025 to you all!