Upstairs Water
My dog, Hershey, is a true Methodist. She has one way of doing things, and that's the way she's determined to do it. (I don't think that's JUST true of Methodists, but I try to only speak of what I know!) She has two bowls of water in the house—one upstairs in our bathroom and one downstairs in the laundry room. During the day, when she's home by herself, the bathroom door is closed but the laundry door room is open. She can get water (which is right next to her food bowl, and she seems to find that okay) any time she wants.
And yet, most days when I come home in the afternoon, she is running to the bathroom door because she wants a drink of water. She'll drink most of the bowl of water, then look at me as if to say, "What? I only drink upstairs water...out of this old Country Crock tub. I can't stand to drink downstairs water out of the nice bowl you bought me." And then she walks away.
I remind her regularly that there is another bowl of water. But she refuses. She's an "upstairs water" dog.
And then I'm reminded—how often do I miss something God might have for me because I'm locked into the way I think it ought to be done, or the way I did it yesterday...or last year... Especially this time of year (is there any other time of year that is more tradition-laden than Advent and Christmas?), what might we miss because we insist on doing things the way we've always done them, or the way we want to do them? How many blessings do we miss because we're convinced God can only work THIS way and not some other way?
I'm not knocking tradition. I love the traditions of this season. Christmas isn't Christmas until I've sung "Silent Night" and watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas." But I also want to be open to that new song, that new way of seeing the story, that new way God might stir my heart this year. I don't want to be so focused on one thing that I don't see other ways God wants to fill me.
May you see the baby of Bethlehem in new ways this Advent season!
And yet, most days when I come home in the afternoon, she is running to the bathroom door because she wants a drink of water. She'll drink most of the bowl of water, then look at me as if to say, "What? I only drink upstairs water...out of this old Country Crock tub. I can't stand to drink downstairs water out of the nice bowl you bought me." And then she walks away.
I remind her regularly that there is another bowl of water. But she refuses. She's an "upstairs water" dog.
And then I'm reminded—how often do I miss something God might have for me because I'm locked into the way I think it ought to be done, or the way I did it yesterday...or last year... Especially this time of year (is there any other time of year that is more tradition-laden than Advent and Christmas?), what might we miss because we insist on doing things the way we've always done them, or the way we want to do them? How many blessings do we miss because we're convinced God can only work THIS way and not some other way?
I'm not knocking tradition. I love the traditions of this season. Christmas isn't Christmas until I've sung "Silent Night" and watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas." But I also want to be open to that new song, that new way of seeing the story, that new way God might stir my heart this year. I don't want to be so focused on one thing that I don't see other ways God wants to fill me.
May you see the baby of Bethlehem in new ways this Advent season!
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