{"id":824,"date":"2014-12-04T03:00:31","date_gmt":"2014-12-04T08:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.paracletepress.com\/index.php\/gifts-of-service\/"},"modified":"2014-12-04T03:00:31","modified_gmt":"2014-12-04T08:00:31","slug":"gifts-of-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.paracletepress.com\/index.php\/gifts-of-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Gifts of Service"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Melodious Monk<\/p>\n

Jesus comes to us in many ways. In this season, we especially pay attention to Him coming as an infant. And what do infants need?\u00a0 In short, lots of help — constant care, someone to feed them, keep them warm, and protect them.<\/p>\n

I realized something today. I look forward to Advent, to its hope and the expectation of Jesus \u2013 for a fresh start, forgetting the past year and moving on with purpose and expectation.\u00a0 It\u2019s a time to say \u201cyes,\u201d to open my heart and to allow more room for Jesus. \u00a0“Come Lord Jesus, quickly come” falls out of my lips as the time-honored mantra of the season.<\/p>\n

I learned something else today. Underneath my hope, need, and expectation for God to come, to save, and to heal me, what I\u2019m really asking (even demanding) is to be given these gifts. I don\u2019t really want to serve this infant King; I just want him to do what I fervently ask!<\/p>\n

And yet Jesus comes to us as a needy infant. I can only imagine the time and energy necessary to take care of or \u201cserve\u201d a new-born. This “service” is a full-time commitment. In contemplating the Christ Child during Advent, are Jesus, Mary, and Joseph teaching me how to serve the adult Christ as well?\u00a0 I\u2019m reminded that God wants a relationship with me. In addition to asking for his help and healing, I also must love and serve him. Then I can expect to be able to walk with him.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

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By Melodious Monk Jesus comes to us in many ways. In this season, we especially pay attention to Him coming as an infant. And what do infants need?\u00a0 In short, lots of help — constant care, someone to feed them, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paraclete-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paracletepress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paracletepress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paracletepress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paracletepress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paracletepress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paracletepress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paracletepress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paracletepress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paracletepress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}