Month: January 2020

         Opening their treasure chests,
         they offered him gifts
         of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
                  —Matthew 2.11

The magi studied stars and knew things.
They observed their world and understood.
They sought, they paid attention, and they found.

What they found was royalty, hidden
in a peasant child, hidden always,
and hidden in you: a royal priesthood.

You don’t have gold, frankincense or myrrh.
You also don’t have nothing. Even the shepherds
had something to offer. What do you have?

You are gifted. You are a treasure chest.
What God has given you this world needs.
Open your treasure chest. Offer. God will be pleased.

Breath prayer:  
                          Gifts … given

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

January 3, 2020

         “Where is the child who has been born
         king of the Jews?
         For we observed his star at its rising,
         and have come to pay him homage.”
                           —Matthew 2.2

Magi captained by a star, lured by love,
consult Herod possessed by fear
to find a young woman courted by grace
who has given birth to a boy
compelled by Holy Spirit.

(Herod, obsessed by rage, will hunt for the boy
but only for himself,
and so die hungering.)

Magi reeled by love
seek no glittering else.
Attentive, undeterred, persistent,
the star no mere sign but a magnet,
they will find the way,
and find another way.

Oh, to be so haunted.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

January 2, 2020

         Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth;
         for the first heaven and the first earth
         had passed away, and the sea was no more. 
                 —Revelation 21.1

Living Creator, you who make all things new,
this Eighth day of Christmas
is the eighth day of Creation:
beginning anew.
Entering a new year
I open myself to what is dawning in me.
Here I stand,
ready to be re-created.
In trust and wonder
I open myself to what shall be,
what is already becoming.
Reveal your creating power in me,
your voice in me, your hope in me,
your birthing in me.
I lay myself in your hands.
I open myself to your grace.
Let there be light.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

January 1, 2020