Devotional for the Ninth Day of Christmas

John 14:1-6 (Legacy Standard Bible) “Do not let your heart be troubled;   believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that    where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.”    Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going. How do we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me.”

I love labyrinths. I’ve walked on several, including the one at Chartres Cathedral in France and the humble Hopi square labyrinth that I set up in the base chapel at the Joint Maritime Facility at RAF St. Mawgan in Cornwall. Labyrinths should not be confused with mazes. Mazes offer many choices and are designed to trick and mislead us with dead-ends and other traps. Labyrinths, however, offer but one choice: to enter or not. Early Christians were sometimes called “Followers of The Way.” In this way, these people were claiming to follow in the example of Jesus who came not to claim any earthly power but to offer a path that would lead to the presence of God. To walk the path of Jesus is to say that this path that I have chosen will in fact lead ever closer to the heart of God. And this path will draw me to the ultimate source of life, the very heart of the Divine. As the New Year gets underway, will you join me on The Way?

— Pastor Charles