Read It Again, Mommy!

     I continue to be amazed at how my young children can listen to stories over and over and over again.  Just as soon as the last page is read, I invariably hear, "Read it again, Mommy!"  The same goes for videos or CDs in the car.  How can children hear the same thing so many times?  Don't they already know the characters, the plot, and how it all ends?  In fact, my 4 year old is starting to recite various lines from movies, books, and songs because he knows them so well.  What is this fascination with listening to the same story over and over again?  Maybe it's the way human beings learn, even absorb stories and lessons and truth.  It starts to shape us, our thinking, our behavior, our speech. 

     Perhaps that is the reason for the rhythm of the church calendar.  After all it's the same stories over and over and over again, Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Ash Wednesday, Lent, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter, Pentecost.  The same stories in scripture such as the Good Samaritan, the Widow offering her two last coins at the temple, the Woman at the Well, Jesus with the Children, the Greatest Commandments, salt and light and sheep and goats.  Attending church on a regular basis, we will hear all these stories multiple times.  Maybe it's the way Christians learn, even absorb the stories and lessons and Truth that God has to teach us.  And it starts to shape us, our thinking, our behavior, our speech.
     As you hear the Christmas story once again this weekend, ask God to "Read it again!"  It's not that we don't know the story.  But maybe it's that we need to allow that story to re-create us, shape our thinking, our behavior, our speech.  Maybe we need to absorb that story, even memorize some of its lines, so that it becomes a part of us each and every day of the year.  God's love became flesh and lived among us.  May you know God's love, living among you, this Christmas season.