RECOGNIZING GOD’S “VISITS”
(November 25)
“And when he drew near and saw the city he wept over it, saying, ‘Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace (τὰ πρὸς εἰρήνην)! But now they are hid from your eyes. For the days shall come upon you, when your enemies will cast up a bank about you and surround you, and hem you in on every side, and dash you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another in you; because you did not know the time of your visitation (τὸν καιρὸν τῆς ἐπισκοπῆς σου).” (Lk 19: 41-44)
The coming/advent of Christ was a time “of visitation” (tes episkopes); of Jerusalem being “visited” by God. Being “visited” in this sense (in the “episcopal” sense of the Greek term) implies being watched over, remembered, cared for, and, if need be, chastised and set right. But many in the Jerusalem of that time did not recognize that God was paying them a visit, just as I sometimes fail to notice it. And, instead of hearing His voice, repenting (or refocusing and changing my mind) and allowing myself to be set right, which would bring me true peace, i.e., instead of “knowing” or recognizing “the things that make for peace,” I might try to silence His voice through my own rationalizations and self-justification. This is ultimately a self-destructive road, and if any of us follow it long enough, it brings down our “city” or everything we built, which is a house of cards that stands but by the grace of God.
Today let me keep my heart wide open, and pay attention to God’s “visits.” Let me let Him stop me in my tracks, if He finds this necessary, perhaps through a critical comment of a loved one, or an unexpected bill in the mail, or some humbling, good thing. Let me recognize the time of my visitation, and be a welcoming host/ess to One Who comes, again and again, into my “city” with either judgment or mercy, “the things that make for peace.” “Thy kingdom come,” I say today with gratitude, as we begin to prepare for Thanksgiving, and “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
