December 8, 2014 Advent Devotional - Less

Today's devotional readings from the LEC Family Advent Devotional John 3:30 -- He must become greater; I must become less.”

I think this picture is a very interesting twist on the usual commentary that we hear for this passage.  Humility is a very hard word to define, let alone live.  We often think of it as weakness.  Instead, we should not think less of ourselves, but think of ourselves less and do more for others.  Many of the images that I saw for this passage used mathematical references since the most important words in this verse are "more" and "less."  In one of my former lives, I was a math teacher.  One of the visuals that I used to teach the concept of more and less to my math students was by making your hand look like an alligator.  If you open your hand like an alligator's mouth, the open part of the mouth points towards the greater number and the back of the alligator's mouth, points towards the lesser number.  If we do this same thing when we're thinking about the challenges of this verse, the open part of our hand is pointing outward to the people that we should be helping and away from ourselves.  Today's devotional writer challenges us to "simply remember this Advent season that God chose the way of less. When God came in Jesus, he chose to leave the glory of His Kingdom. He chose not to be elite or powerful, but a child born into a simple family in a small and hidden part of the world. God chose a way of suffering and rejection. God chose the way of less so that we could become more. May God’s heart be our heart!"

Today's Advent Photo of the Day

#less #pictureadvent

 

Every year my church participates in a Christmas Project.  For six months, various fundraisers are held to help support the Christmas Project plus other mission projects.  Yesterday, many of the children from the church and their parents and grandparents went shopping for the 99 children that the church will help this year for Christmas.  This is a picture of last year's stockings.  Each child receives a stocking plus a gift.  The adults in the family also receive a gift and food for their Christmas dinner.  This is a big project, and we're a small church.  "He must become greater and we must become less!"  Yes, I think that has been accomplished!