A few weeks ago I had breakfast with Max Smith. As we sat down Max asked, “So how much time do you have?” Now I have not been a pastor all that long, but I have learned that is a question that must be answered very carefully. So I responded, “Why do you ask?” To which he responded, “I want you to come see a little bit of my world.” I then spent the next couple of hours seeing Max’s world. For those who may not know, Max is a bit of a model train fanatic, and he proceeded to let me in on his world of model trains, even taking me to see the current model trains running at the Northport Train Depot, home of the Black Warrior Model Railroad Club, which, by the way, is open to the public free of charge every Saturday morning.
I thought about my time with Max for days afterwards, and realized that we all have our little worlds that we live in. Every week our lives are filled with all kinds of things that shape and form who we are. It is also in these places that the Lord himself desires to meet us, which is what we celebrate in the season of Advent: that Christ himself chose to come into our world. As Eugene Peterson put it, “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.”
What is going on in your world as we enter into another holiday season? Is it a season where old wounds once again become painful? Is it a time where memories of loved ones passed away create another round of loneliness? Is it a season of enjoying time with those you seldom see? Is it a stretch of unparalleled busyness? Whatever each of our little worlds look like right now, may we remember that Christ is with us in them, and may we be filled with fresh awe and wonder at his willingness to step out of heaven in order to, in the words of Max, “come see a little bit of my world.”
Ben
Below are some Advent resources I’ve come across recently that may be helpful during this season:
“Come, Let Us Adore Him: A Daily Advent Devotional”, by Paul Tripp