“On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. They they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned home to their country by another route.” Matt. 2:11,12)
It has been an interesting start to 2017 if you have been affected by the recent arctic weather sweeping across the U.S. Here in Oregon we are a little out of sorts dealing with multiple “winter weather advisories” and snow that is layered upon ice which hasn’t even melted yet. It is a particular nightmare for mom’s needing their kids to get out of the house before permanent damage is done.
Life doesn’t seem to slow down enough for us to do anything but spend a moment to appreciate a few things and then get back to the grind.
My Christmas season (the week before and week after Christmas day) was divided into three sections: A family retreat, Christmas with the Body of Christ on Sunday, and the deaths of two people I know the day after Christmas. Each one of those from one vantage point could seem extremely different in nature. Surly they are different, but how are they connected, I thought? How might the reality of “God with us” be true in each? In what way can the Word made flesh impact these moments of life? I believe that there are answers to those questions, which is why I believe there is a healthily need for debriefing.
I was thinking about how some of the greatest moments might happen if we are willing to debrief. When Jesus was declared “RISEN” by the women to the other disciples there was a lot of speculation going on. Luke talks about two of the men leaving and returning to Emmaus, about seven miles away. It says that they had a time of debriefing:
“They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other Jesus himself come up and walked along with them.” Luke 24:14-15
Wow. While these men were debriefing and reflecting on what had happened, Jesus shows up! I mean, literally! I feel like this offers great promise but also I fear what I have missed over the years because I have hurried to the next thing. In the matter of these two on the road to Emmaus and the Magi from the east a specific thing was taking place that kind of forced them to think: They were traveling or returning back home after the Mega Event. In their day and age, that was a large chunk of time…unlike our abilities to be George Jetson.
But I have been interested in their return home. What was that like? What did they talk about I wonder? I am sure that there was a bit of “debriefing”. There is no way to know but I came up with some kind of dialogue they may have had.
Things they may have thought about:
Sometimes I wonder if we let times like that slip away in our life. Have we moved from segment to segment so quickly that we neglect the valuable times of “debriefing” or reflection? This could be on the heels of great things happening, small things, or difficult things. What have we learned, or what can we learn, and how do we make it stick? I wonder if the Magi were able to take a flight with Southwest Airlines home and be back at work in a matter of hours, that Jesus would have had as much of a lasting impact on them. Instead, they were “forced” to think about the events of the last few days as they rode home.
Have you allowed God to speak into your life as you create your weekly schedules? Have you been able to reflect on what is going on in your life and family? What about the small things (literally small like our cell phones!) that are filling your time and preventing any digesting of eternal truths? Let us sense the need to debrief as the Lord Jesus comes along side of us to make our hearts burn and we are opened up to God’s Word.
Pastor Brandon