What is God’s “love language”? His message of love to us was in giving His Son, and all through the Advent season we hear the story and sing the songs of how this came to pass. Just as now, people of that long ago time were living their daily lives, trying to pay their taxes, traveling, dealing with their problems, while most of them were not trying to make history.
When we look back at the event of how God gave His Son, we look back with the full story open and understood. We see the Innkeeper as having missed his opportunity to serve the God of the universe, the Wise men as being truly wise, the Mother Mary as the most blessed of women. But in their daily lives at the time, much faith was needed to understand the importance of small and everyday things in the plan of God.
Cups are used each day because they contain something for someone to drink. It is a necessary item, and if you whittled down your belongings to the bare minimum I think you might want to include a cup among the number. Cups are such a part of our existence that we have made them to represent, metaphorically, a reservoir for much more than simply something to drink.
“My cup runneth over ”
“The cup of kindness”
“Do you see the cup half full or half empty?”
In the love language of Heaven, giving even a cup of water to the thirsty, or meeting the needs of the needy, or any small act of kindness to our fellow man is taken as something we offer to God Himself. The message of Christmas is filled with this message of God’s kindness and our ability to “give back” in token response by making special efforts to give cups of kindness to those in need.
Not one day in anyone’s life is an uneventful day, no day without profound meaning, no matter how dull and boring it might seem, no matter whether you are a seamstress or a queen, a shoeshine boy, or a movie star, a renowned philosopher or a Down’s-syndrome child. Because in every day of your life, there are opportunities to perform little kindnesses for others, both by conscious acts of will and unconscious example. Each smallest act of kindness—even just words of hope when they are needed, the remembrance of a birthday, a compliment that engenders a smile—reverberates across great distances and spans of time, affecting lives unknown to the one whose generous spirit was the source of this good echo, because kindness is passed on and grows each time it’s passed, until a simple courtesy becomes an act of selfless courage years later and far away.
~Dean Koontz, From the Corner of His Eye
It is also the love language of Heaven for the Son to come not for himself, but for us, and to take the cup of suffering so that we might have a life of abundant joy and peace.
Little did the Shepherds know that this suffering was part of the good news that the Angels sang about, and it is doubtful that even the Wise men were aware. But we, around our Advent candles, can look into the whole mysterious story and see the meaning of this good news for us and all mankind. And in taking communion we can understand how God filled the cup of life for us… full of forgiveness and healing, and restoration to right relationship.
The Wise men and the star, more to know.
Sing the carol, “Little Drummer Boy”
Lyrics and Guitar chords:
The Little Drummer Boy
Pa [A7] rup a pum [D] pum
[A] A new born king to see
Pa [A7] rup a pum [D] pum
[A] Our finest [D] gifts we bring
[G] Pa [D] rup a pum [A] pum
To lay be[D]fore the King
[G] Pa [D7] rup a pum [G] pum
Rup a pum [D] pum, rup a pum [A] pum
[D] So to honour Him
Pa [A7] rup a pum [D] pum
[A7] When we [D] come
Baby Jesus
Pa rup a pum pum
I am a poor boy too
Pa rup a pum pum
I have no gifts to bring
Pa rup a pum pum
That’s fit to give our King
Pa rup a pum pum
Rup a pum pum, rup a pum pum
Shall I play for you
Pa rup a pum pum
On my drum?
Mary nodded
Pa rup a pum pum
The ox and lamb kept time
Pa rup a pum pum
I played my best for Him
Pa rup a pum pum
Rup a pum pum, rup a pum pum
Then He smiled at me
Pa rup a pum pum
[A] Me and my [D] drum
[A] Me and my [D] drum
[A] Rup a pum [D] pum
