december twenty-fifteen

December Twenty-Fifteen 

May the sounds of Advent stir a longing in your people, O God. Come again to set us free from the dullness of routine and the poverty of our imaginations. Break the patterns which bind us to small commitments and to the stale answers we have given to questions of no importance. Let the Advent trumpet blow, let the walls of our defenses crumble, and make a place in our lives for the freshness of your love, well-lived in the Spirit, and still given to all who know their need and dare receive it. Amen.  –Howard Thurman The Mood of Christmas

While darkness and coldness infiltrate our days, we do not only look forward to the coming of warmer and lighter times, but also to the coming of the Light that will expel all that is dark forever. Did you know that of old Advent was a time of preparation, just like Lent coupled with self-examination and fasting? I regret that nowadays we have lost this time of preparation, as because of all the December busyness we threaten to be all of the sudden confronted with a child in a manger without being really ready to welcome him.

–Artway.com

The world is alive, blinking and clicking, winking at us slyly, inviting us to get up and dance to the music that’s been playing since the beginning of time, if you bend all the way down and put your ear to the ground to listen for it. ― Shauna Niequist Cold Tangerines  

If you ask what language the Creator speaks, the best answer is this: God’s first language is full-spectrum light, clear water, deep sky, red squirrel, blue whale, gray parrot, green lizard, golden aspen, orange mango, yellow warbler, laughing child, rolling river, serene forest, churning storm, spinning planet. 

A psalmist said the same thing in another way—the universe is God’s work of art- God’s handiwork.  All created things speak or sing of the God who made them. If you want to know what the Original Artist is like, a smart place to start would be to enjoy the art of creation.

-Brian McLaren We Make the Road By Walking

I arise today with winter in my being:

Resting earth

Gracious darkness

Dreaming seeds

Barren trees

Frosty breath

Glowing fireplaces

Empty spaces.

This is my inheritance in this vibrant new season.

I arise today in the heart of winter.

-Macrina Wiederkehr

The Circle of Life

Love is what carries you, for it is always there, even in the dark, or most in the dark, but shining out at times like gold stitches in a piece of embroidery. 

–Wendell Berry Hannah Coulter

 This is one of the beauties of family: you don’t get to choose who your family is — and we all have to learn how to be ourselves and how to let others be themselves even when those selves are very different. Love has to take priority. –Winn Collier

Oh, by gosh, by golly! It’s time for mistletoe and holly! -Frank Sinatra, Mistletoe and Holly

"Embedded deep in our hearts is a need to be together, to be included, to be seen and known and to be loved. We want this (and if we're really honest - we expect it)  most intensely from our families. Christmas tends to bring out these deep needs and expectations. And when they are not met as we had hoped it can really trip us up together. The beautiful thing about family is also that these arguments or tripping points do rise up  - showing us the exact places within us and between us where we are in the most need of love. Lean in hard to these places. You see-  the mess of family arguments really is not the bad news of Christmas - but can point out precisely and directly to the good news of Christmas!

The good news of Christmas is that there, in a back-water village, in an animal shed, surrounded by the poor and outcast,  God came to be with us. God had pitched a tent next to ours, moved into our neighborhood, took on our skin and struggle. God didn't come into a perfect world full of perfect people. Because that world wouldn't have needed him. He came into a very broken and messy world. He wasn't afraid of the mess in the world then and he certainly isn't afraid of the mess in our lives now. In fact, that is right where he longs to be. God came for each of us. We are seen. We are known. We belong. We are included. We are loved entirely.

So when we gather with family and we struggle to be seen or understood by one another - let us remember the perfect gift of God's love for us. Let us steep in the love that we have already been given so completely. And with the fullness of being seen and known and loved so perfectly -  let us do our imperfect best to show that to those around us. Let us invite God's love into these struggles between us, the mess and the brokenness is just what he came for - so that our hearts can be healed."

-Becky Tucker

In this season….."may we be honest about the darkness and more perceptive about the light…."  –Renee Sundberg

At Christmas we traditionally welcome the infant Jesus. But how much more does he long for us to come to him, so that he can embrace us. –Nigel Halliday  

"…..holding you and this tormented, brilliant world to the Light as best I can."

–Loretta Ross 

Thank you, God, for the things you heal, the things you redeem, the things you refuse to leave just as they have been for what seems like forever. -Shauna Niequist Cold Tangerines 

Pictured above are some of the dear children in our Children of the Kingdom in India at their Christmas pageant. 

Let us light a candle for the Christ child, for the infant Jesus, the Word made flesh. let our hearts glow with that light that was in him, so that we become candles through which his light shines still. For Christmas is a process as well as an event.  Your heart and mine can become the little town, the stable, the manger... even now. Let a new day, a new creation, a new you, and a new me, begin. Let there be light.  -Brian McLaren