Build a House for God, show Him Some Love (Sunday, Advent 4)

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Introduction

Are we ready to set ourselves out for greatness and miracles? Then, let us prepare to build a house for God, let us prepare to show Him some love!

Reflection

It is said that the basic needs of man are food, shelter and clothing. Amongst these three basic needs, let us concentrate more on shelter as we reflect on the readings of the Fourth Sunday of Advent. One of the most horrible experiences any person wishes and prays not to go through is to exist or live without a shelter, without a decent place or house comfortable enough for him or her to lay his/her head. We may be lucky enough that we have places where we can lay our heads at night and sleep. But I wish we can step into the shoes of those who don’t have a house or even a tent, it will help us understand how basic the need for shelter is. And so, it should be considered a great act of love to provide a decent shelter for one who does not have any. It is fitting that we reflect on this today, the Fourth Sunday of Advent is the Advent Week of Love.

In the first reading (cf. 2 Sam. 7:1-5.8b-12.14a.16), David intended to do something for God: to provide Him a decent house. For over 300 hundred years, God dwelt in the Ark of the Covenant which was nothing but a tent, a makeshift tent. David thought about it, “I dwell in a cedar, I dwell in a palace; but God dwells in a mere tent; I will build a decent house for God”. Because of this singular intention, God sent his prophet Nathan to go and pronounce blessings, blessings innumerable to count, on David amongst which is that He (God) would make him (David) a great name, like the names of the great ones of the earth; would give him rest from all his enemies; would make him a house; would raise up his offspring whose kingdom God would establish and his kingdom and throne shall be established forever. See the uncountable promises of peace, greatness, dynasty and royalty made to David just because of his singular intention to build a house for God. A singular act of love, in fact just a sincere intention of love for God expressed by David was enough to draw out a chain of promises of God’s blessings upon him and his generations to come, even the promise of making him (David) a proto-ancestor of Jesus the God-made-man, the King whose kingdom will have no end. The power of love!

David’s thought or intention of building a house for God set his house and his lineage apart for greater and bigger blessings from God. Just because David expressed a sincere intention of doing something great for God, his house (his lineage) became a CENTRE FOR MIRACLES AND SUPERNATURAL INTERVENTIONS. And one of these miracles is the miracle of a virgin conceiving without the intervention of a man.

In the same house of David, God promised to dwell no longer in the form of tablets of stone but in human flesh (in the person of Jesus); and this took place in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a woman betrothed to Joseph the Son of David.

Just think of it! How humanly possible could a virgin conceive and bear a child? But it has happened once in history in the house of David! How could God in his divinity and awe condescend to take human flesh and become like us? Yes, it has happened in the house of David, in the womb of a virgin married to Joseph the son of David, to whom the statement was made, “FOR WITH GOD NOTHING WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE” (Luke 1:37). This virgin was the first human person to be described as being FULL OF GRACE! All of these happened in the house of David!

We pray and claim Abraham’s blessings, David’s blessings, and so on. Are we ready to do what they did? I am not saying that God MUST bless us just because we have offered money for His sake. Remember God is God, not man! His ways are not our ways, His thoughts not our THOUGHTS (cf. Isa. 55:8-9). Take note of this: GREATER THINGS RARELY HAPPEN OR COME TO THOSE WITH LESS LOVE. When you do whatever you do for God, what is your intention? Are you doing it because you are propelled by your love for God or do you do it ONLY because you want God to bless you? David never thought of building a house for God just because he wanted God to bless him. No! He thought of building a house for God because of his great love for a God who dwelt in a mere tent! He deemed it fit to build a decent house for God! He saw a NEED and thought of responding to it!

 Understand this point very clearly! MIRACLES ARE MANIFESTATIONS OF GOD’S SUPERNATURAL LOVE. BUT FOR MIRACLES TO OCCUR, THERE MUST BE HEARTS INFLATED AND INUNDATED WITH LOVE FOR GOD AND FOR HUMANITY. Go through the lives of the saints and you will understand better. David’s heart was inflated with love. And that became a seed-ground for the explosion of greatness and miracles. The consequence of David’s expression of love for God was a chain of reciprocation of God’s love for David expressed in diverse ways.


Present yourself to be used as an expression of God’s miraculous love in the life of someone; and rivers of divine greatness and blessings will never stop flowing in your life.         


May God fill our hearts with love and faith, and set us apart for greater impacts in His name in the world, Amen!


Happy Sunday!

Have a miraculous day and week!   


        

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