CamDevo

I have to wear reading glasses now. It happened suddenly. One day I couldn’t see the food at the end of my fork clearly as I put it in my mouth. I rubbed my blurry eyes, thinking I’d gotten something smeary in them, but the blurriness remained. And it’s still there.

Reading glasses are basically magnifying lenses that make things bigger that are close up so I can see them more clearly. I can read, thread a needle, and see what I’m eating.

I can still read without the glasses, but I have to squint and struggle. I get frustrated and make errors. Eventually I get a headache. I either give up or go in search of my nearest pair of reading glasses.

“And Mary said: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,” (Luke‬ ‭1‬:‭46‬-‭47,‬ ‭CSB)‬‬

The archaic meaning of magnify is “to praise” or “to extol.” I know that was the translator’s intent in this verse.

But it’s interesting to think about the more modern meaning of “to make something bigger.” I think that meaning is appropriate here as well.

God is bigger than anything I can imagine, bigger and more mighty than anything He created, bigger than the universe, and He’s everywhere in it.

And yet, in my life He takes up only a small corner. That is a terrible decision on my part. I need to magnify God in my life. I need to give Him complete access and full control so His love swells to every nook and cranny in my soul. Then I will experience His true magnificence. Only then can I appreciate His love and wisdom, holiness and beauty.

This is what happened to Mary when God invited her on the journey of birthing the Savior. She was filled with God’s Spirit. God was magnified to His true size in her soul. She could no longer contain her joy and burst into song. The Magnificat.

Dear God, I know you are not small. I am sorry for making you so in my life. Please fill me with your fullness, or what I can handle of it. Reveal to me your vast love and infinite holiness. Take up as much room in my life as you want, pushing out the clutter that does not belong and has no value.

I tend to be restrained when I pray. I don’t usually ask for anything too wild. I guess because I feel selfish asking for too much.

But God invites outlandish requests. He can do the impossible and appreciates the faith required to seek impossible things from Him.

Jesus told His disciples that they could move mountains if they had the faith of a tiny mustard seed. He modeled that kind of prayer and faith for His followers.

“The angel replied to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.’” (Luke‬ ‭1‬:‭35‬, ‭CSB‬‬)

If God could make a virgin suddenly become pregnant, He can suddenly remove cancer from a loved one. He can make a blind person see. He can dissipate a financial problem overnight. He can make a hard-hearted, hatred-spewing monster suddenly become generous, humble, and kind.

God can move mountains. It’s time to start praying like I believe it.

Dear God, thank you for encouraging me to pray for mountains to be moved. Forgive me for letting my doubts dictate my prayers instead. Teach me how to pray with boldness and confidence the way Jesus did. Oh Lord, hear my prayer!

At one point in my life I considered myself doomed to live in small, nowheresville towns that started with the letter B.

My hometown of Baraboo had a population of around 8000 in those days. A lot more if you counted the cows. After college, I got a great job in Chicago but was immediately transferred to upstate New York where I lived in Baldwinsville. When I got laid off from that job a year later, I ended up staying with relatives in Bellingham, Washington until I found a new job. I had an offer in Boston (at least it wasn’t small), but I chose Seattle instead. Finally my streak had ended.

When I was young and seeking excitement, I felt trapped in those small towns. I was sure I couldn’t accomplish anything meaningful there or meet anyone interesting.

But Jesus proved me wrong. He was born in Bethlehem, a small B town, and look what He accomplished. He saved the world.

“Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are small among the clans of Judah; one will come from you to be ruler over Israel for me. His origin is from antiquity, from ancient times.” (Micah‬ ‭5‬:‭2‬, ‭CSB‬‬)

Bethlehem was a nothing little town. It didn’t belong on anyone’s list of top travel destinations then. Most people weren’t familiar with it and probably couldn’t have found it on a map. And yet God chose it as the miraculous birthplace of our Savior.

I think God chose it exactly because it was insignificant. If the Messiah came from Bethlehem, that would be surprising. And if a prophecy pointed out such a nowheresville town as the birthplace of the Messiah, that would be very memorable. And that’s exactly what happened.

Everyone knows Bethlehem now. We sing songs about it every Christmas. And it’s on many people’s travel bucket list.

Baraboo still isn’t famous. I guess I have some work to do.

Dear God, thank you for the reminder that you can accomplish your will anyplace and anytime. You are not confined by our earthly standards. Big things can happen in small places. Unknown, insignificant people like me can do great and mighty things in your name, with your power. Give me the courage to think big.

Have you ever asked God for a sign? Maybe to help you decide something, or just a sign that He exists and cares about you?

He doesn’t make a habit of providing signs on command and doesn’t usually encourage asking for them (in fact, He specifically commands us not to test Him), but He’s not entirely opposed to providing signs either.

There are many examples of God providing signs of His existence and His plans (the rainbow after the flood, the burning bush, the star of Bethlehem) and several more examples of God agreeing to provide a sign to a specific person in a specific situation (Gideon’s fleece, Hezekiah’s steps, Moses’s staff).

There is even one example of God telling someone to request a sign. To underline His promise of deliverance, God offered King Ahaz a sign — whatever he wanted. But Ahaz demurred. God, frustrated by Ahaz’s cowardice, provided one anyway.

“Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.” (Isaiah‬ ‭7‬:‭14,‬ ‭CSB)‬‬

God’s sign to Ahaz was also a sign to all of humanity. For Ahaz, it simply provided a timeline for his deliverance. His enemies would be defeated in the time it took to conceive, birth, and wean a child.

But for the rest of us, this prophecy pointed to Jesus. The sign of a virgin giving birth and providing deliverance to all people.

I’ve experienced signs of God in my life, some big, some small. But the sign of Jesus is the only sign I really need to know who God is and how much He loves me.

Dear God, thank you so much for revealing yourself to me in myriad ways throughout my life. Keep me alert to your continued presence and activity around me. Forgive me for always asking for more, when you already gave so much by sending Jesus to fulfill the prophecies of old and save me from my sin.

A nearby house in my neighborhood was abandoned. The windows were boarded up, and no one had lived there in years. One day a demolition notice appeared. The house would be torn down and cleared away so a new one could be built.

Every time I walked by that house, I eyed the plants, which were overgrown and unhealthy. But once upon a time, someone had lovingly selected, planted, and cared for them.

There was a rose bush growing right up next to the decaying building. It had spindly stems and malnourished tiny leaves, but it was alive. I knew the demolition crew wouldn’t do anything to save it. So, one day I came with a shovel. I dug it up, put it in a bucket, and carried it home.

Sure enough, in a few days the house was a pile of rubble along with all the plants and shrubs that had surrounded it, including a lovely Japanese maple that had been too large for me to salvage.

I planted the rose in a large pot, and put it in a sunny corner. I fertilized it, and pruned it back. And I waited, hopeful.

Then one bright day some new growth appeared. Shoots sprung from the dried up, dead-looking wood. Then buds developed. And finally big beautiful pink roses bloomed.

Today that rose plant is sturdy and thriving in a friend’s yard, bringing joy, color, and a beautiful fragrance to each passerby.

“Then a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.” (Isaiah‬ ‭11‬:‭1, ‭CSB‬‬)

God cared so much about us that He used a desolate, dwindled, and seemingly forgotten people to bring forth the Savior of the world and the hope of all generations to come.

God cares about every single person He created. Nothing is hopeless, and no one is beyond saving. God’s powerful love can breathe life into any situation of despair and defeat. Hopelessness has no place in God’s kingdom.

Dear God, thank you for never giving up on me. Thank you for never giving up on anyone. Forgive me for giving up on some people. Fill me with the promise of your love, your power, and your perfect plan. Teach me about hope today.

Promises are risky to make. If I don’t fulfill a promise I made, my credibility is instantly and thoroughly destroyed. Even little promises taint a relationship when they are unmet. Big broken promises are devastating.

If I promise to wake you up from a nap in half an hour but let you sleep for a full hour, making you miss an important phone call, you won’t trust me with anything, big or small, for a long time.

If I promise to be faithful to you in a marriage but end up finding comfort in the arms of another, my marriage will be irreparably damaged and may dissolve entirely.

Promises are dangerous. Jesus warned humans against making them at all because we are so bad at keeping them. (See Matthew 5:33-37.)

God, on the other hand, is excellent at keeping His promises. He makes quite a few in the Bible. And so far, He has a 100% success rate. He’s batting a thousand. He’s so good at keeping His promises that He even keeps them when He technically doesn’t have to. When He made a deal with the Israelites, they didn’t keep their end of the bargain, but He still kept His. He let them suffer the consequences of their sin for a time, but then came through with His promise despite their failure.

“Look, the days are coming” — this is the Lord’s declaration — “when I will fulfill the good promise that I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” (Jeremiah‬ ‭33‬:‭14,‬ ‭CSB)‬‬

God brought the Israelites out of exile and restored their land to them, fulfilling His good promise.

And then later, He sent Jesus, the Messiah, fulfilling another, more far-reaching aspect of this good promise.

God doesn’t owe me anything, and I haven’t earned any good thing from Him. And yet, He promised to save me from death. He promises to love me and be with me always. He promises to turn toward me and hear me when I pray to Him or praise Him. He promises to guide me and remind me of all He has taught me through the Bible. He promises to provide strength, rest, peace, and comfort, among other good things, when I come to Him seeking them.

God fulfills every promise He makes. If He hasn’t met a promise He made, it’s only because the time is not yet perfect. God can be trusted. My hope in Him is never in vain.

Dear God, thank you for showing me what true love looks like. Thank you for your reliability, your faithfulness, your trustworthiness. I’m sorry when I put my hope in other things. Thank you for your beautiful promises and for reminding me that you are the only perfectly consistent source of good and love to be found on earth.

When I was in high school I had a dream that I got two jobs, and I was trying to figure out how to juggle their schedules. In reality, I had been applying to summer positions so employment was on my mind.

The dream turned out to be a premonition as I did end up accepting two different jobs, and my schedule was challenging to juggle at times.

That was the only time anything like that has ever happened to me, and I remember being dumbstruck about it at the time. However, I don’t think it was a vision with any purpose sent from God or anything like that. Probably just a busy mind working out the details of a stressful situation.

God does use visions to speak to and through His people sometimes though. It shouldn’t be counted out as impossible.

“A voice of one crying out: Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert.” ‭‭(Isaiah‬ ‭40‬:‭3,‬ ‭CSB‬‬)

God used Isaiah to tell His people about the good news of their salvation through Jesus nearly 600 years before Jesus was born. And He used John the Baptist to spread the news just a few months before Jesus’s ministry began. (Clearly we needed a lot of preparation and encouragement.)

It’s hard to imagine getting a message from God the way the prophets of old did. Did they hear a voice? See a vision? Just have an urgent feeling?

But Jesus’s followers do all have a message straight from God that we are commanded to share. It didn’t arrive as a vision or a dream. It’s written down for us, clear as a bell. Jesus said to reach out to everyone, everywhere, of every tribe and nation, to tell them that God loves them and has a free gift of salvation ready and waiting for them. What Good News!

Dear God, thank you so much the good news of salvation! Thank you also for making my duty as your follower very clear. I don’t have to wait for or puzzle over a vision. Thank you for the words of the Bible that lay it out for me in black and white. Teach me how to be an effective messenger today.

I think I was in my late 20s when I first understood the true value of time. I had an interesting job, and I spent the bulk of my waking hours working. I didn’t seem to have time for anything else. Then I remember hearing someone say, “Time is more valuable than money because you can get more money, but you will never get more time.” That really hit home for me then, and I still think about it now.

I was spending all my time getting more money. I didn’t understand that what I was giving away was more valuable. It was like giving my diamonds in exchange for some glitter.

Don’t get me wrong. I know I need money to get by around here. But it doesn’t need to be my priority. God promises to meet my needs if I make love my priority instead.

“This is how we have come to know love: [Jesus] laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.” (1 John‬ ‭3‬:‭16,‬ ‭CSB‬‬)

My life can be measured out in a finite set of minutes. I don’t know how many it will be, but God has ideas for them all. When I choose to spend those minutes loving people (instead of seeking after success, wealth, comfort, or fame), He reveals His plans for a new, beautiful life with infinite minutes. This is His gift to all who accept it.

Dear God, thank you for your beautiful and underserved gift of infinite minutes in a new life. Remind me that my minutes here in this life are precious and few but all belong to you. Teach me how to spend them as you desire.

God created us with brains and passionately curious minds. And He created this vast and wondrous existence for us to explore. We have not reached the end of it in outer space nor have we reached the bottom of it in the study of subatomic particles. We don’t really even know how our own bodies work.

There are so many interesting things in God’s creation to study, observe, learn, and try to comprehend. God made it so.

So of course science and religion can coexist. In fact, they should do more than coexist. True religion is fed by science and vice versa. We cannot expect to fully understand a product without consulting the maker.

False religion is afraid of science. It is afraid of a discovery that could prove deeply held beliefs to be incorrect. Or worse, prove that God doesn’t exist.

“Jesus said to him, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’” (Matthew‬ ‭22‬:‭37‬, ‭CSB‬‬)

As you notice, Jesus said I am to love God with my mind. I can think of no better way to do this than to ask questions and diligently seek the answers. The scientific method is a beautiful tool in learning the truth about this amazing God we have. God isn’t scared about what we’ll discover, nor should I be.

Dear God, thank you for the beautiful world and universe you created for us. And thank you for the curiosity and passion you instilled in us to want to know and discover and understand. Reveal yourself to all who seek to know you with an open mind.

In an early episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the crew discovers a crystalline life form on a planet that is being terraformed. The crystal entity considers the terraforming a hostile act and retaliates against the humans which they call “ugly bags of mostly water.”

For some reason this insult has stuck with me. Probably because it is both funny and pretty much true. We are mostly made up of water, an average of 60% or so. In fact, every single cell in our bodies contains water, including our hair, fingernails, and tooth enamel.

Water is a critical, foundational building block of nature. Without it, the universe and everything in it, including Earth and humans, would not exist.

Water is so vital to life that it is actually a decent metaphor for God’s love. God’s love created everything and without His love it would all cease to exist. God is love, and He imbued everything in His creation with His love.

We can mess up our connection to God’s love with sin, the same way we can pollute our precious water resources. But God has provided beautiful ways of naturally recycling and filtering our water, and He has provided a Way for us to be refilled with His love as well, through Jesus.

“And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.” ‭‭(1 John‬ ‭4‬:‭16‬, CSB‬‬)

I may feel like I don’t need to drink water, but bad things happen when I get dehydrated, even mildly so. Similarly, if I don’t drink in God’s love as often as I can, bad things happen to me spiritually.

Dear God, thank you for my body and the miracle of life. Thank you for my easy access to clean water and my even easier access to you and your love. Remind me to drink you in every chance I get. Fill me up with your loving Spirit today.