Christmas, the Silver Tea Set and Hope

I never thought I’d learn something from polishing silver. After all, who has time to go through the painstaking process! Well, I inherited a silver tea set. Time and exposure to air coated it with so much tarnish, it no longer looked like the tea set I remembered. So, I decided to take the time to clean it up for the Christmas season.

As I started cleaning my mind wandered back through past Christmases - some good, some not so good. But it struck me that Christmas is a symbol of hope. Hope for a better tomorrow, hope for answers to problems and hope that the solutions become a reality. For many active hope takes form in prayer.

Statistics show that more people are turning to prayer for answers in their lives. Roughly half of Americans pray about their health and more than thirty-five percent have seen or felt a divine healing of injury or illness. A University of Rochester study found that 85 percent of people under medical care for disease are also actively praying about their health.

I thought about how prayer has been the catalyst for change in my life. Not the, “Oh please God, I really want a Maserati.” But the, show me how to more closely follow Jesus’ instruction to love God, and my neighbor as myself and the strength to have the obedience to do it. 

That course of daily prayer is no small task. Like polishing silver, it requires time, patience and attention to detail. The results are tangible! As I work on polishing the tea set I can see the tarnish melting away to reveal the original beauty and luster of each piece. This has been my experience in using  prayer for all sorts of problems.

As you can see from the picture, this polishing project is a work in progress. I think prayer is, too. As I work with the polish I have a pretty good idea what will be revealed. As I have worked on my daily practice of prayer, it has given my greater hope in the next problem I face. To me,  that means the joy of Christmas every day of the year.

Merry Christmas!