LUCKY

Count yourself lucky, how happy you must be— you get a fresh start, your slate’s wiped clean. Psalm 32 (The Message Bible)

I’m on a Yahtzee lucky streak! Playing yard Yahtzee my first time ever at the church anniversary celebration brought joy to my heart. Playing traditional table Yahtzee with my family the following weekend made me so happy! I rolled Yahtzee twice in one game for the first time in my life! (Yahtzee = rolling 5 of a kind with all 5 dice) I’m feeling very lucky, and it’s a good feeling to have. It brings a little joy and lightness to the stress and heaviness the world brings into our lives.

Feeling lucky is akin to knowing we are blessed. We don’t hear much about “lucky” in scripture, but Psalm 32 in The Message version uses the word “lucky” instead of “blessed.” It’s a lighthearted way to think about all the blessings in our lives that God bestows upon us in the fresh start we have in Jesus. If you’re down and out or feeling small, as we look forward to basking in the newness of Jesus coming into the world in Advent, I want to share a poem from last year’s Advent theme, “How Does a Weary World Rejoice?” to share some encouragement, hope, peace and joy in the little things:

The Last Time I Saw God

The last time I saw God face to face

I was looking at a bed of tulips.

God was every color of red.
I was merely a mortal, in awe of it all.

The time before that,
we were tying back the curtains, looking for stars.
God was the deepest purple and the brightest light.

The time before that,
the city was soft with snow. God was the quiet
that tucked us all in.

And in between these small gifts there were newborn babies,
and sapling trees,
homemade bread, the sound of a church singing on Sunday.

...

Why, yes, we are lucky.

We are more than lucky for the moments when

delight and awe

unzip the weight we carry around.

Prayer by Rev. Sarah Speed | A Sanctified Art LLC | sanctifiedart.org

 Be Light & Lucky, Pastor Andrea