Please read the passage before reading the commentary.
Do you remember playing games when you were a child. We could play house, congress, doctor, soldier, priest, teacher, our mom or dad, or anything we wanted to play. It was fun when our siblings or friends joined us in the game of the moment. If they refused, however, we did not have a happy time.
“Thus says the Lord God” in the words of Micah, if you had played my game, according to my rules, and on my playing field, “then your prosperity would be like a river and your name will never be cut off or blotted out from God’s presence.”
God wants to spent time with us on earth so that we can spend eternity with God in heaven. God’s game, however, is not make believe. It is, rather, reality. God comes to lead us to salvation, to lead us into God’s home for lunch and all time.
This is the mystery of Advent, of the coming of the Lord. Yes, God was to be born in a manger and grow up. In growing up and experiencing at firsthand the life and death of humans, God has entered our world, our playgrounds, our workplaces, our homes. This is the way God teaches us and leads us on the way we should go.
God challenges us. God sent John the Baptist. He was very much not a party animal. He wore austere clothing and ate locusts and wild honey. He was accepted by some and not accepted by others.
God sent Jesus. Jesus enjoyed good meals and good company. He even welcomed sinners and ae with them. Those who liked John also liked Jesus. Those who did not like John did not like Jesus. Those wo like John and Jesus enjoyed playing in God’s playground and house.
We are called to follow God’s game plan for us. Then our lives will be like fertile rivers and like fields ripe for the harvest. We were once children, but we have grown us. God is still in charge of our lives.
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