NEW YEAR’S EVE

Wednesday’s Reflection

I ABIDE with you. I rejoice with you. I suffer with you. I heal you. I awaken you. I transform you. I transform through you.

This is God’s voice speaking not only to the world but to every part of the world; not only to nations and communities but to every individual; not only to humanity but to every aspect of struggling, evolving creation.

- Flora Slosson Wuellner
Prayer, Stress, and Our Inner Wounds

From p. 84 of Prayer, Stress, and Our Inner Wounds by Flora Slosson Wuellner. Copyright © 1985 by The Upper Room. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/. Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Scripture Reading

O LORD, our LORD, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

- Psalm 8:9, NIV

This Week …

Special Need:

This Week: Pray for new beginnings. Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.

Tips for Your Spirit:

Wanting to go deeper into the spiritual life? Read How to Have a Daily Devotional Time.

Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember Melania the Younger (December 31).

Lectionary Readings:

• Ecclesiastes 3:1-13
• Psalm 8
• Revelation 21:1-6
• Matthew 25:31-46

Sponsored by The Upper Room daily devotional guide. Subscribe Today.

Copyright © 2008 The Upper Room | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

Tuesday’s Reflection

NO CHRISTMAS SCENE should ever resemble a museum piece. The birth of Christ is an interactive celebration, an ageless production that invites the miracle of incarnation into our homes at exactly the right time.

- Derek Maul
In My Heart I Carry a Star: Stories for Advent

From p. 20 of In My Heart I Carry a Star by Derek Maul. Copyright © 2008 by the author. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/. Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Scripture Reading

It is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil.

- Ecclesiastes 3:13, NRSV

This Week …

Special Need:

This Week: Pray for new beginnings. Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.

Tips for Your Spirit:

Wanting to go deeper into the spiritual life? Read How to Have a Daily Devotional Time.

Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember Melania the Younger (December 31).

Lectionary Readings:

• Ecclesiastes 3:1-13
• Psalm 8
• Revelation 21:1-6
• Matthew 25:31-46

Sponsored by The Upper Room daily devotional guide. Subscribe Today.

Copyright © 2008 The Upper Room | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

Monday’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 p. 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. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/. Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Scripture Reading

I heard a loud voice speaking from the throne: “Now God’s home is with people! He will live with them, and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them and he will be their God.”

- Revelation 21:3, GNT

This Week …

Special Need:

This Week: Pray for new beginnings. Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.

Tips for Your Spirit:

Wanting to go deeper into the spiritual life? Read How to Have a Daily Devotional Time.

Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember Melania the Younger (December 31).

Lectionary Readings:

• Ecclesiastes 3:1-13
• Psalm 8
• Revelation 21:1-6
• Matthew 25:31-46

Sponsored by The Upper Room daily devotional guide. Subscribe Today.

Copyright © 2008 The Upper Room | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

FIRST SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS DAY

Sunday’s Reflection

COME, LORD JESUS! Pitch your tent and make your home with us. Be our friend and helper every day. Open our ears to your teachings, and strengthen us for the tasks you have given us. Come to reign in our hearts now, and come at last to reign in all the world. We praise your name and bow before you, for you are Jesus Christ, the Lord of heaven and earth. Amen.

- Blair Gilmer Meeks
Expecting the Unexpected

From p. 40 of Expecting the Unexpected by Blair Gilmer Meeks. Copyright © 2006 by the author. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/. Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Scripture Reading

To show that [we] are his children, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who cries out, “Father, my Father.”

- Galatians 4:6, GNT

This Week …

Special Need:

This Week: Pray for celebration of God-With-Us. Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.

Tips for Your Spirit:

Don’t put Christmas away too soon. Celebrate all 12 Days of Christmas.

Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember Stephen (December 26).

Lectionary Readings:

• Isaiah 61:10 – 62:3
• Psalm 148
• Galatians 4:4-7
• Luke 2:22-40

Sponsored by The Upper Room daily devotional guide. Subscribe Today.

Copyright © 2008 The Upper Room | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

Saturday’s Reflection

WE WORSHIP not a hidden God, covered, clothed in mystery, inaccessible. We worship God revealed — a child, born of humble means, forsaking glory to be one of us, one with us, Emmanuel. We worship God reconciling, giving life for us, and raised to new life, calling us by the Spirit to give our lives away for love.

- Alive Now

From cover 2 of Alive Now, November/December 2003. Copyright © 2003 by The Upper Room. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/. Learn more about or purchase this magazine.

Today’s Scripture Reading

The child [Jesus] grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

- Luke 2:40, GNT

This Week …

Special Need:

This Week: Pray for celebration of God-With-Us. Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.

Tips for Your Spirit:

Don’t put Christmas away too soon. Celebrate all 12 Days of Christmas.

Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember Stephen (December 26).

Lectionary Readings:

• Isaiah 61:10 – 62:3
• Psalm 148
• Galatians 4:4-7
• Luke 2:22-40

Sponsored by The Upper Room daily devotional guide. Subscribe Today.

Copyright © 2008 The Upper Room | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

BOXING DAY

Friday’s Reflection

CHRISTMAS
means absolutely nothing
apart
from
Jesus.

- Derek Maul
In My Heart I Carry a Star: Stories for Advent

From p. 44 of In My Heart I Carry a Star by Derek Maul. Copyright © 2008 by the author. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/. Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Scripture Reading

I will sing for joy in GOD, explode in praise from deep in my soul! He dressed me up in a suit of salvation, he outfitted me in a robe of righteousness.

- Isaiah 61:10, THE MESSAGE

This Week …

Special Need:

This Week: Pray for celebration of God-With-Us. Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.

Tips for Your Spirit:

Don’t put Christmas away too soon. Celebrate all 12 Days of Christmas.

Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember Stephen (December 26).

Lectionary Readings:

• Isaiah 61:10 – 62:3
• Psalm 148
• Galatians 4:4-7
• Luke 2:22-40

Sponsored by The Upper Room daily devotional guide. Subscribe Today.

Copyright © 2008 The Upper Room | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

CHRISTMAS DAY

Thursday’s Reflection

GENTLE, loving God,
you come to me this day
in the form of a tiny, vulnerable baby.
I look on you with wonder and gratitude.
Glory to you in the highest heaven,
and on earth, peace among all peoples and nations.
For it is in the name of your child, Jesus,
that we pray.
Amen.

- Beth A. Richardson
Child of the Light: Walking through Advent and Christmas

From p. 84 of Child of the Light by Beth A. Richardson. Copyright © 2005 by the author. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/. Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Scripture Reading

The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us.

- John 1:14, GNT

This Week …

Special Need:

This Week: Pray for celebration of God-With-Us. Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.

Tips for Your Spirit:

Don’t put Christmas away too soon. Celebrate all 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 © 2008 The Upper Room | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

CHRISTMAS EVE

Wednesday’s Reflection

GOD CALLS us to come home for Christmas. God calls us to come back from all those places where we have settled for less than the fullness of life promised to us in Christ. God calls us back from all the ambitions and possessions we have pursued, thinking they would satisfy us. God calls us to let go of any bitterness and resistance to forgive that block the light of love from warming us. … God calls us to come home and to rest, to be embraced by one who loves us as we are. God offers us a place where we are fully known and also fully accepted.

- Mary Lou Redding
While We Wait: Living the Questions of Advent

From p. 45 of While We Wait: Living the Questions of Advent by Mary Lou Redding. Copyright © 2002 by the author. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/. Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Scripture Reading

Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets.

- Hebrews 1:1, NRSV

This Week …

Special Need:

This Week: Pray for celebration of God-With-Us. Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.

Tips for Your Spirit:

Don’t put Christmas away too soon. Celebrate all 12 Days of Christmas.

Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember Stephen (December 26).

Lectionary Readings:

• Isaiah 9:2-7
• Psalm 96
• Titus 2:11-14
• Luke 2:1-20

Sponsored by The Upper Room daily devotional guide. Subscribe Today.

Copyright © 2008 The Upper Room | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

Tuesday’s Reflection

MAY THE HOLY SPIRIT fall upon you.
Like a falling star, trailing across the dawns and dusks of your Advent living,
may the Spirit mark you with light and point the way toward God-With-Us.
Be patient, draw close, for the Lord is very near. Amen.

- Pamela C. Hawkins
Simply Wait: Cultivating Stillness in the Season of Advent

From p. 67 of Simply Wait by Pamela C. Hawkins. Copyright © 2007 by the author. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/. Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Scripture Reading

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace.

- Isaiah 52:7, NIV

This Week …

Special Need:

This Week: Pray for celebration of God-With-Us. Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.

Tips for Your Spirit:

Don’t put Christmas away too soon. Celebrate all 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 © 2008 The Upper Room | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

Monday’s Reflection

THE ONE WHO MADE US is also the One who cannot stand for us to be apart. And that One begins to whisper to the ones who will listen — “I will come again, I will walk among you. Look for me in a child who is to come, born of a maiden.” The ones who hear the whisper and believe it begin to whisper themselves, trying to describe as best they can what they hear and what is to come. They use words like “Messiah,” “Immanuel,” the “Rod of Jesse,” and “Son of David,” trying to speak of what they know can hardly be said. The collective repeating of the whisper grows in volume until it has become as the sound of a voice crying in the wilderness.

Those who have begun to wait and to watch can indeed do only that: wait and watch. They look for the signs of God among us and wait and hope and wonder if they have somehow misunderstood. And now we wait along with them again.

- Robert Benson
The Night of the Child

From p. 75 of The Night of the Child by Robert Benson. Copyright © 2001 by the author. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/. Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Scripture Reading

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

- John 1:5, NRSV

This Week …

Special Need:

This Week: Pray for celebration of God-With-Us. Add your prayer to the Prayer Wall.

Tips for Your Spirit:

Don’t put Christmas away too soon. Celebrate all 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 © 2008 The Upper Room | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA