Month: December 2020

Look! the Holy One is coming!
God, you come—
to feed your flock like a shepherd,
to gather the lambs in your loving arms;
you will carry them in your bosom,
and gently lead the mother sheep.
—Isaiah 40.10-11

You come!
Into this hell of cruelty and oppression you come,
without a sword.
No power but gentleness,
no bulwark but the warmth of your bosom.
No weapon against suffering but the willingness to suffer
to hold us.
No shield against death but to die first
before it can stop you from loving us.
You lead us through the valley of the Shadow;
you fill it in with yourself leveling it.
These hands that feed us, that gather the lambs of us,
these hands,
there are holes in them,
aren’t there?

To that bosom that comes, we will come.
In the peace in those arms
we lose hell,
we find courage to resist it,
you undo it.

Hungry, weary and alone, we cry to you,
not in desperation but hopeful wonder,
in joy, even:
Shepherd of Miracles, come!

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

December 3, 2020

Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low.
—Isaiah 40.4

What I have mounded up, O God,
what I have heaped for keeping,
level out and shovel off to fill another’s need.

What I lack, O Graceful One,
the cracks and canyons, the crumbling arroyos
of my will, smooth out, to make passage.

What great heights I face, O Humble One,
the steeps and crags I can’t traverse,
bring low, and come near.

What emptiness I hide, O God,
the pits and cavities and swallowings
and ditches of my heart, fill in with your grace.

Of the power and riches I grasp, relieve me,
that I may know the glory of your grace.
­
The shame and poverty I bear, redeem,
that I may know the blessing of your presence.

Transform this world, O God.
Begin with me.

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

December 2, 2020

In the wilderness prepare the way of the Holy One,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
—Isaiah 40.3

Not that God can’t come ’till we get it right,
not that we have to hurry up and clean house
before the householder comes,
but that the Beloved is coming,
and asks us to trust.
Not that we need to get the work done,
but that the Beloved is already working,
and we are asked to prepare for the victory parade.

How can we be so bold,
when injustice haunts, when evil rides unchecked?
By trusting in the power of gentleness
and the victory of compassion,
and by doing justice, which opens our eyes.
Justice arises from people who have hope;
their hope arises when they do justice.

Prepare your way in me, O Holy One.

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

December 1, 2020