Psalm 17:7 “Show me the wonders of your great love, you who save by your right hand”
We sing about it, read about it. It’s so familiar we almost trivialize it. Yet, I can’t think of a better time of year to ponder and proclaim the wonders of God’s love.
This Christmas season comes at the close of a year marked with lots of loss, uncertainty, riots and regrets. People weary of lockdowns, politics and an ongoing flood of vitriol, feel helpless. And even worse—hopeless. There’s a yearning. Maybe for some, an expectation Christmas will remind us of better days.
Most of us are trying to make the best of it by focusing more on what we do have than what we don’t. And we’re asking, like the psalmist, Lord, help us see the wonders of your love.
A few weeks ago, one of our neighbors rang the doorbell. A package intended for us had mistakenly landed in his mailbox and he was returning it. When we asked about his family, we were shocked to hear his wife had pancreatic cancer and was undergoing chemo.
After he left, I told my husband I wanted to get her a card and he said he’d thought about taking her a bouquet of holly from our holly tree. A small gesture, but sometimes tiny acts of kindness point to something bigger, maybe something full of wonder. So a couple days later, we knocked on their door, card and holly in hand. “I walk by your house every day,” I said, “and I want you to know I will pray for you as I go by.” I’m asking God—daily—to show them the wonders of his love.
When David was in a hard place, he cried out to God, asking him to reveal the wonders of his great love and rescue him. As God answered David’s prayer, so he will answer ours, as we intercede for ourselves and those around us. Ah, friend, this Christmas, Christmas 2020, people need to know more than ever about this God whose love compelled him to come to earth and save us. So let’s proclaim the timeless refrain:
He rules the world with truth and grace
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness
And wonders of His love, and wonders of His love
And wonders, wonders, of His love.
Merry Christmas!