In today's first reading, 2 Samuel 7: 1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16, King David wants to build a house for the Ark of the Covenant, explaining to Nathan the prophet: "Here I am living in a house of cedar, while the art of God dwells in a tent!" And Nathan responds: "Go, do whatever you have in mind, for the Lord is with you." But that night the Lord spoke to Nathan and says to him: "Go, tell my servant David, 'Thus says the Lord: Should you build me a house to dwell in? 'It was I who took you from the pasture and from the care of the flock to be commander of my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you went, and I have destroyed all your enemies before you. And I will make you famous... I will fix a place for my people Israel; I will plant them so that they may dwell in their place without further disturbance....I will give you rest from all your enemies. The Lord also reveals to you that he will establish a house for you...."
It is no different for us than for King David! God took each one of us from lowly places, insignificant places, and made us who we are today. Wherever we have gone, God has gone with us and ahead of us to prepare the way for us to succeed. He's fixed a place for us where we would thrive in doing the good we were sent to accomplish! It is God who removes that which disturbs us, causes us trouble, many times that being negative attitudes, weaknesses within us: our pride, our envy, our jealousies, our deceitfulness, lustfulness, fears, lack of faith and trust in the Lord, patterns of unforgiveness and/or the holding of grudges, and our judgmental ways, and so on. It is God who gives us "rest from all [our] enemies." It is the Lord who is establishing a house for us, an eternal house, in heaven above where, for sure, there will be no "further disturbances." That is the gift of Christmas: A Savior who destroys all of our enemies, those within and those without and leads us to our eternal home!
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