URC Daily Devotion 28 December 2024
St Luke 2: 39 – 40
When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him.
Reflection
There’s a moment near the end of the 2009 Star Trek “reboot” when the Starship Enterprise swoops in to save the day that always makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. The swell of the choir, the flash of the special effects, and the film reaches its dramatic conclusion.
Reboots have become big business for Hollywood. From director JJ Abrams’ Star Trek and Star Wars projects through to Daniel Craig’s James Bond origin stories, producers have enticed audiences into cinemas by resetting their storylines to offer fresh takes on familiar characters.
As Christians, we’re witnesses to perhaps the greatest “reboot” ever. Jesus died on the Cross to wash away our sins and rose from the grave to give us a “reboot”, a fresh start, an opportunity for a one-on-one relationship with God.
We access that reboot day-by-day in our personal prayers and week-by-week when we come to pray together as part of our worship. At the same time, we pray for help to forgive others for their sins against us, helping them to find that fresh start, that reboot.
Hogmanay is approaching. For many of us, it’s a time for reflection, often tinged with melancholy, as the dark evenings and long nights remind us of all we’ve lost and how we’ve failed.
Yet Hogmanay can also be a fresh start, a reboot, a new beginning. Even though it may simply be the turn of a page in the arbitrary way we measure time, the new year brings with it a new potential.
That potential leaps out from today’s passage in Luke’s Gospel. Jesus as a child is brimming with potential, growing and strengthening, gaining wisdom and favour from God.
Today’s passage mirrors Luke 1:80 as Jesus’s cousin, John the Baptist, grows and becomes strong in strength and spirit as well. It’s a timely reminder of how we as followers of Jesus are brimming with potential too.
Prayer
God of the reboot,
thank you for your never-ending, overflowing, grace
which allows us to say sorry and to start again.
As we approach Hogmanay,
help us to grow in faith and in number.
Strengthen us for service; fill us with your wisdom.
And pour out your favour upon us,
so that we can love our neighbour and,
in doing so, love you more deeply.
In Jesus’s name we pray. Amen.