Presents and Presence

As Christmas creeps on to the horizon (and, more importantly, my birthday), thoughts turn to presents.

 

You have perhaps seen the play on words in wedding or birthday invitations: It's your presence we want, not your presents.*  Or No presents thanks, it's your presence that counts!

 

There is something powerful and significant about our presence - about being present in a situation.  Not just being there in person, whilst our hearts or minds are distracted.  But being really present.

 

When we are really present, we can connect with people properly.  We are completely focused on them.  We can listen to what they're saying and what they're not saying, but longing for us to hear. 

 

When we are really present, we share something of ourselves with others.

 

It's the same with the presence of God, too.

 

When we enter His presence, we learn something of who He is. 

 

I have had the words of two songs about being in God's presence on my heart for the last few days.

 

The first is 'I Love Your Presence':

 

         "In the glory of Your presence
         I find rest for my soul
         In the depths of Your love
         I find peace
         Makes me whole

         I love, I love, I love Your presence
         I love, I love, I love Your presence
         I love, I love, I love You Jesus
         I love, I love, I love Your presence."

 

And the second is from 'Set a Fire' by United Pursuit Band:

       "No place I would rather be,

       No place I would rather be,

       No place I would rather be,

       Than here in your love,

       Here in your love."

 

This desire to be in God's presence is something that David understood.

 

        "The one thing I ask of the Lord —
        the thing I seek most—
        is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
        delighting in the Lord's perfections
        and meditating in his Temple."

 

       [Psalm 27:4 NLT]

 

Is this really the one thing I want?  The one thing I desire?  Is it the thing I seek the most?  Is there really no place I would rather be?

 

I'm not sure.  Probably not.  But I want to want it to be.  For it is in God's presence that we find rest for our souls and peace that makes us whole.

 

It is in God's presence that we find ourselves. 

 

 

 

 

*FYI This doesn't swing with me, I'm much more of a presents girl.

 

 

Light Therapy

Yesterday I wrote about seeing beyond the grey familiarity of our everyday world.

 

Today, I have managed to do exactly the opposite.

 

It didn't help that I was tired.  It didn't help that it was Monday.  And it certainly didn't help that the weather was grey and dull.

 

As the 'Summer' draws to a close and the nights draw in, it becomes increasingly difficult to see the sun or to remember what it feels like to sit out in the garden and enjoy a BBQ.  The warmth and the light of summer becomes a distant memory and it becomes increasingly difficult to see beyond the grey familiarity of our everyday world.

 

In recent years, the medical term SAD has been coined: Seasonal Affective Disorder.  It describes the "winter blues" from which many people suffer when they don't get enough sunlight.*

 

One 'treatment' for those suffering from this condition is "light therapy" in which a light box is used to stimulate the production of the 'feel-good' hormone serotonin. 

 

Sometimes when we are suffering from the "spiritual blues" and are struggling to see beyond the grey familiarity of our lives we need some 'light therapy" too.

 

The Bible describes God and His word as our light:

"The Lord is my light and my salvation."

[Psalm 27:1 NLT]

 

"O Lord, you are my lamp.

The Lord lights up my darkness."

[2 Samuel 22:29 NLT]

 

When we are surrounded by the gloom, we can trust God to light up our darkness.  If we immerse ourselves in His word and His truths, we will find His light brings the golden glow of hope into our grey lives.

 

 

* Perhaps this symptom could be redefined as 'British Affective Disorder'.