Be still, and know that I am God;
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth.

The Lord Almighty is with us…

Psalm 46: 10-11

Email after email is screaming at me: There’s still time to buy this!!! Last-minute gifts still available.

Few things provide a sense of calm this time of year as the knowledge that you are done shopping. The gifts are wrapped (pause here to say how much I hate fighting with packing tape). The stocking stuffers are tucked away where you can actually find them this year.

Ahhh.

But even if your list isn’t completed, God reminds you to be still. Take a breath. Pay attention to the present moment. Breathe in the fresh smell of a rain-washed landscape. I enjoy the smell of damp earth. Pay attention to the colors of wet bark and the flowering bulbs. Admire the twinkling lights that adorn trees all over town.

Pause and appreciate the joys set before you in the ordinary course of each day. Writer Jill E. McCormick made a good observation recently. Almost everyone in the Christmas story was just going his or her everyday work when God presented joyful news. The shepherds didn’t go looking for joy out in the fields. The Angels delivered joy to them.

God does that for us as well if we just would be still long enough to notice.

You will never recall how quickly you got your shopping done or your groceries purchased or a memo drafted. But you may remember when God gave you a sense of calm. The peace that passes all understanding.

Wishing you a very merry Christmas.