# Small Day 1 > Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God. ### Opening Prayer: *Lord, give me the ability to persist through tedium, to survive without the oxygen of recognition, praise, and stroking, and to do some good things every day which are seen only by You. (Sacred Space: the Prayer Book 2010 by Jesuit Communication Centre)* #### Psalm for the Week: Psalm 131 #### John the Baptist Prepares the Way #### 1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.[a] *2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,[b]“Behold, I send my messenger before your face,who will prepare your way,3 the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare[c] the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’”* *4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”* #### Scripture for the Day: Mark 1:1-8 #### John the Baptist Prepares the Way *1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.[a]2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,[b]“Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way,3 the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare[c] the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’”* *4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”* #### Reading for Reflection: ​ *For quite some time I have been living with the suspicion that God has a preference for the small, the hidden, the quiet, and the lowly. I see it clearly all over the pages of Scripture, but maybe nowhere more clearly than in the Christmas narrative. To imagine that God, the Creator of all that is, chose to enter into that creation in the way that he did is simply astounding. To come into this world as a tiny, helpless baby; born to a couple of poor teenagers, who could afford nothing more than a lowly stable for a room, is beyond my imagination. It is almost as if God wanted to slip into our world without being noticed at all; except by those that were watching and waiting, by those paying extra careful attention.* ​ *So during this season, would it not be wise of us to try and take notice of the small, the hidden, the quiet, and the ordinary? Would it not be wise to ask ourselves, “If God chose to become smaller (in some amazingly mysterious way that we cannot fully comprehend), then how might he be asking us to become smaller as well?” And who knows, if we keep asking ourselves that very question, and if we are really fortunate, then maybe, just maybe, someday we might actually become small enough for Christ to arrive; both among us and within us. ~Jim Branch September 2010* #### Reflection and Listening: silent and written #### Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself #### Song for the Week: Winter Snow *Could've come like a mighty storm* *With all the strength of a hurricane* *You could've come like a forest fire* *With the power of heaven in Your flame* *But You came like a winter snow* *Quiet and soft and slow* *Falling from the sky in the night* *To the earth below* *You could've swept in like a tidal wave* *Or an ocean to ravish our hearts* *You could have come through like a roaring flood* *To wipe away the things we've scarred* *But You came like a winter snow* *You were quiet You were soft and slow* *Falling from the sky in the night* *To the earth below* *Oh, no, Your voice wasn't in a bush burning* *No, Your voice wasn't in a rushing wind* *It was still* *It was small* *It was hidden* *You came like a winter snow* *Quiet and soft and slow* *Falling from the sky in the night* *To the earth below* *Falling* *To the earth below* *You came falling From the sky in the night* ### Closing Prayer: *Lord, High and Holy, Meek and Lowly,* *Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision, where I live* *in the depths but see thee in the heights; hemmed in* *by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.* *Let me learn by paradox* *that the way down is the way up,* *that to be low is to be high,* *that the broken heart is the healed heart,* *that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit* *that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,* *that to have nothing is to possess all,* *that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,* *that to give is to receive,* *that the valley is the place of vision.* *Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from the deepest* *wells. And the deeper the wells the brighter thy stars* *shine;* *Let me find thy light in my darkness,* *thy life in my death,* *thy joy in my sorrow,* *thy grace in my sin,* *thy riches in my poverty,* *thy glory in my valley.* *(The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions ed. by Arthur Bennett)*