I guess you had to be there!

Here we are, at the beginning of the week that marks the end of the year.  Many of us will either be (blissfully) on vacation or working reduced hours.  Schools are out of session, so it is likely that some of the regimen of academic or extra curricular activities will ease.  Travel from hither to yon will continue (prayers for safe journey abound) and there will still be a flurry of visiting and hosting across the region. 

This week tends to be a time of assessment and evaluation.

It's not unusual for conversations during this week to go to the subject of "the best" or "the worst" of 2010.  There is the reflection upon the regrets of the year, which may lead to the commitment to set some behavior aside in the year to come.  Writers may journal copiously this week, list makers find themselves developing the top ten of whatever category, and sorters and sifters may whiz once again through that drawer or closet and fill several bags with goods to be tossed or passed on.

The people of God will gather around the events of the year to pray and wonder about how those experiences clarify our thoughts about our vision and mission in 2011.  We look at what we have done, and what has happened to us.  And, hopefully, we look with awe and appreciation at the places and spaces where we have seen God in action. 

Today's reading from John includes a very human statement regarding the myriad and infinite things that God "does".  As he tells of Jesus and all that he did, the writer takes the easy way out saying,

But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. (John 20:25)

I see this as another way of saying "You had to be there!", like when we try to recount a touching or humorous story and the faces of our listeners are bland, with eyes glazed over.  There is that moment when the speaker knows that words are inadequate to convey the event.  It seems to me that John, the disciple, knows that the scope of Jesus' ministry simply could not be contained.  In contemporary terms, we might say, all of the gigabytes in the world couldn't contain all of things Jesus did. 

Yes!  I look at 2010 and I can say that the number and variety of God's blessings lavished upon us can't be quantified.  Because the Holy Spirit has meandered through every moment of every day in what we have seen and what we have not seen, there is simply no way we can recall it all.  Therefore it is good, sometimes, to simply say:

Thank you!  Praise to you, O God!  Amen.