NEW YEAR’S EVE

Sunday’s Reflection

TAKE ME INTO A NEW YEAR, Gracious God. Help me to continue looking for meaning, seeking peace, praying for light, dancing for joy, working for justice, and singing your praise. I go into the new year filled with expectations, a touch of worry, and a bundle of hope. I do not journey into the new year alone but with you as my guide, with a commitment to my disciplines, with a community of family, friends, and faith. Take me into the new year, Creator of beauty and wonder. Bless me with the companionship of Jesus, and gift me with the guidance and power of the Spirit. Amen.

- Larry James Peacock
Openings

From page 398 of Openings, by Larry James Peacock. Copyright © 2003 by Larry James Peacock. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Scripture Reading

As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

- Colossians 3:12, NIV

This Week …

Special Need:

This Week: Pray for peace it all the world and among all peoples. (Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.)

Tips for Your Spirit:

Don’t put Christmas away too soon. Celebrate for the entire 12 days. Read some suggestions for your celebration: The 12 Days of Christmas.

Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember Stephen (December 26).

Lectionary Readings:

• Isaiah 52:7-10
• Psalm 98
• Hebrews 1:1-12
• John 1:1-14

Sponsored by The Upper Room daily devotional guide. Subscribe Today

Copyright © 2006 Upper Room Ministries | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

Saturday’s Reflection

CONSIDER FOR A MOMENT what, in practice, the word “adoration” implies. The upward and outward look of humble and joyful admiration. Awestruck delight in the splendor and beauty of God, the action of God and Being of God, in and for God’s self alone, as the very color of life: giving its quality of unearthly beauty to the harshest, most disconcerting forms and the dreariest stretches of experience.

This is adoration: not a difficult religious exercise, but an attitude of the soul.

- Evelyn Underhill
The Soul’s Delight

From page 20 of The Soul’s Delight: Selected Writings of Evelyn Underhill, edited by Keith Beasley-Topliffe. Copyright © 1998 by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Scripture Reading

[Jesus] said to [his parents], “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”

- Luke 2:49, NRSV

This Week …

Special Need:

This Week: Pray for peace it all the world and among all peoples. (Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.)

Tips for Your Spirit:

Don’t put Christmas away too soon. Celebrate for the entire 12 days. Read some suggestions for your celebration: The 12 Days of Christmas.

Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember Stephen (December 26).

Lectionary Readings:

• Isaiah 52:7-10
• Psalm 98
• Hebrews 1:1-12
• John 1:1-14

Sponsored by The Upper Room daily devotional guide. Subscribe Today

Copyright © 2006 Upper Room Ministries | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

Friday’s Reflection

IN THE FACE OF THIS CENTRAL Christian mystery, we may be inclined only to stop and adore. But nowhere in the Gospels does Jesus urge us to adore him.

Rather, he calls us to follow him and thereby to partake of his life, his energy, his spirit — living the divine life here and now by participating in the mystery of the Incarnation.

- Michael Downey
Weavings Journal

From page 29 of Weavings Journal, November/December 1999. Copyright © 1999 by The Upper Room. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. Learn more about or purchase this magazine.

Today’s Scripture Reading

On the third day they found [Jesus] in the Temple, sitting with the Jewish teachers, listening to them and asking questions. All who heard him were amazed at his intelligent answers.

- Luke 2:46-47, GNT

This Week …

Special Need:

This Week: Pray for peace it all the world and among all peoples. (Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.)

Tips for Your Spirit:

Don’t put Christmas away too soon. Celebrate for the entire 12 days. Read some suggestions for your celebration: The 12 Days of Christmas.

Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember Stephen (December 26).

Lectionary Readings:

• Isaiah 52:7-10
• Psalm 98
• Hebrews 1:1-12
• John 1:1-14

Sponsored by The Upper Room daily devotional guide. Subscribe Today

Copyright © 2006 Upper Room Ministries | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

Thursday’s Reflection

TWO THOUSAND years ago God spoke through a manger, and we still experience the mystery! The Christmas story is filled with it. Mystery is not in what we see and do not understand. Mystery is in what we know deeply and cannot see.

I recall a crisp, silent night during Christmastide when my children were teenagers, and we cross-country skied in the moonlight. … Leafless aspen gazed at us from the other side of the pond, singing softly with the spruce in antiphonal chorus “Il Est Ne’”: “He is born, the holy Child.” We stopped, glancing back at the twin scars trailing behind us marking clearly where we’d been. But where we would go lay open before us, unmarred. We grew quiet, sensing anew that the stillness of the universe is a dance of barefoot grace with the Creator, a silence alive with cosmic joy and mystery.

Emmanuel! God is with us!

- Marilyn Brown Oden
Manger and Mystery

From page 100 of Manger and Mystery by Marilyn Brown Oden. Copyright © 1999 by Marilyn Brown Oden. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Scripture Reading

Praise the LORD. Praise the LORD from the heavens, praise him in the heights above. … For his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.

- Psalm 148:1, 13, NIV

This Week …

Special Need:

This Week: Pray for peace it all the world and among all peoples. (Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.)

Tips for Your Spirit:

Don’t put Christmas away too soon. Celebrate for the entire 12 days. Read some suggestions for your celebration: The 12 Days of Christmas.

Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember Stephen (December 26).

Lectionary Readings:

• Isaiah 52:7-10
• Psalm 98
• Hebrews 1:1-12
• John 1:1-14

Sponsored by The Upper Room daily devotional guide. Subscribe Today

Copyright © 2006 Upper Room Ministries | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

Wednesday’s Reflection

GOD OF SURPRISES,
as we walk through the day,
keep our eyes open
and our senses tuned
to your presence
in unexpected places.
Amen.

- Beth A. Richardson
Child of the Light

From page 87 of Child of the Light by Beth A. Richardson. Copyright © 2005 by Beth A. Richardson. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Scripture Reading

Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

- Colossians 3:17, NRSV

This Week …

Special Need:

This Week: Pray for peace it all the world and among all peoples. (Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.)

Tips for Your Spirit:

Don’t put Christmas away too soon. Celebrate for the entire 12 days. Read some suggestions for your celebration: The 12 Days of Christmas.

Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember Stephen (December 26).

Lectionary Readings:

• Isaiah 52:7-10
• Psalm 98
• Hebrews 1:1-12
• John 1:1-14

Sponsored by The Upper Room daily devotional guide. Subscribe Today

Copyright © 2006 Upper Room Ministries | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

Tuesday’s Reflection

I PERSONALLY OFTEN SUFFER a mild sort of postpartum depression the day after the Coming itself. All the anticipation of the waiting and the heightened experience of the birth day itself are now memories, and we are left with the miracle in our arms and the overwhelming sensation that we have only just been initiated into the truth of it: that we are called to nurture and raise to maturity what has been given. We become aware that we must live, as well as anticipate, the Coming.

- Wendy M. Wright
The Vigil

From page 117 of The Vigil by Wendy M. Wright. Copyright © 1992 by Wendy M. Wright. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Scripture Reading

Be forbearing with one another, and forgiving, where any of you has cause for complaint: you must forgive as the Lord forgave you.

- Colossians 3:13, NEB

This Week …

Special Need:

This Week: Pray for peace it all the world and among all peoples. (Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.)

Tips for Your Spirit:

Don’t put Christmas away too soon. Celebrate for the entire 12 days. Read some suggestions for your celebration: The 12 Days of Christmas.

Saints, Inc.:

Today we remember Stephen (December 26).

Lectionary Readings:

• Isaiah 52:7-10
• Psalm 98
• Hebrews 1:1-12
• John 1:1-14

Sponsored by The Upper Room daily devotional guide. Subscribe Today

Copyright © 2006 Upper Room Ministries | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

CHRISTMAS DAY

Monday’s Reflection

LOVING CREATOR,
We give thanks for the birth of joy
in our lives at Christmas.
Let us go forth as messengers
of the good news
of great joy for all people.
Amen.

- Alive Now magazine

From page 52 of Alive Now magazine, November/December 1999. Copyright © 1999 by The Upper Room. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. Learn more about or purchase this magazine.

Today’s Scripture Reading

The angel said to [the shepherds], “Do not be afraid; for see — I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”

- Luke 2:10-11, NRSV

This Week …

Special Need:

This Christmas Day, pray for peace in all the world and among all peoples. Give thanks for God’s great gift to us in the form of a tiny babe. (Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.)

Tips for Your Spirit:

Don’t put Christmas away too soon. Celebrate for the entire 12 days. Read some suggestions for your celebration: The 12 Days of Christmas.

Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember Stephen (December 26).

Lectionary Readings:

• Isaiah 52:7-10
• Psalm 98
• Hebrews 1:1-12
• John 1:1-14

Sponsored by The Upper Room daily devotional guide. Subscribe Today

Copyright © 2006 Upper Room Ministries | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT/CHRISTMAS EVE

Sunday’s Reflection

I NEVER STAYED AWAKE long enough
to view whatever really happened
there in the quietest hour of night,
but I was close to it …
I knew, in the silence itself —
breathing in, breathing out, keeping watch,
keeping vigil for the Coming.

- Wendy M. Wright
The Vigil

From page 85 of The Vigil: Keeping Watch in the Season of Christ’s Coming by Wendy M. Wright. Copyright © 1992 by Wendy M. Wright. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Scripture Reading

When Christ was about to come into the world, he said to God: “You have prepared a body for me. … Here I am, to do your will, O God.”

- Hebrews 10:5-7, GNT

This Week …

Special Need:

This Week: Pray for the poor, the sick, the homeless, those who are suffering from the violence of war or conflict. (Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.)

Tips for Your Spirit:

Christmas can be a difficult time for those who are lonely or depressed. Read the reflection Darkness and Light.

Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember Peter Canisius (December 21).

Lectionary Readings:

• Micah 5:2-5
• Luke 1:46-55
• Hebrews 10:5-10
• Luke 1:39-45

Sponsored by The Upper Room daily devotional guide. Subscribe Today

Copyright © 2006 Upper Room Ministries | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

Saturday’s Reflection

THE WORK OF THE MESSIAH calls us to comfort the old, the weak, the marginalized, the oppressed, and the homeless, who may smell bad because they’re sleeping on the streets, under bridges, and on subway platforms. If we heed the call, we’re almost certain to surrender some of our own comfort. …

The work of the Messiah always has involved comforting the afflicted — and afflicting the comfortable. If we truly want to follow that Messiah, as we say we do, then our work is clearly the same.

- Jim Melchiorre
Reflections of Messiah

From page 16 of Reflections of Messiah by Jim Melchiorre. Copyright © 2003 by Jim Melchiorre. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Scripture Reading

[The Lord's] mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. … he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.

- Luke 1:50-53, NRSV

This Week …

Special Need:

This Week: Pray for the poor, the sick, the homeless, those who are suffering from the violence of war or conflict. (Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.)

Tips for Your Spirit:

Advent can be a difficult time for those who are lonely or depressed. Read the reflection Darkness and Light.

Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember Peter Canisius (December 21).

Lectionary Readings:

• Micah 5:2-5
• Luke 1:46-55
• Hebrews 10:5-10
• Luke 1:39-45

Sponsored by The Upper Room daily devotional guide. Subscribe Today

Copyright © 2006 Upper Room Ministries | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

Friday’s Reflection

THE NIGHT OF THE CHILD is the night of hope, all hopes. We await the coming of this Night with all our hopes bound up together somehow, both our hopes for ourselves as individuals and our hopes for others as well, both those who are known to us and those who are unknown. … We hope there will be things to treasure in our hearts, things to ponder, hold, and remember, and that we will be thoughtful enough to see those things and wise enough to hold onto them.

- Robert Benson
The Night of the Child

From pages 103-104 of The Night of the Child by Robert Benson. Copyright © 2001 by Robert Benson. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Scripture Reading

Elizabeth said to Mary, “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

- Luke 1:45, NRSV

This Week …

Special Need:

This Week: Pray for the poor, the sick, the homeless, those who are suffering from the violence of war or conflict. (Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.)

Tips for Your Spirit:

Advent can be a difficult time for those who are lonely or depressed. Read the reflection Darkness and Light.

Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember Peter Canisius (December 21).

Lectionary Readings:

• Micah 5:2-5
• Luke 1:46-55
• Hebrews 10:5-10
• Luke 1:39-45

Sponsored by The Upper Room daily devotional guide. Subscribe Today

Copyright © 2006 Upper Room Ministries | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA