Month: December 2023

           Herod sent and killed all the children in Bethlehem
                      who were two years old or under….
           Then was heard “Rachel weeping for her children;
                      she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”
                                                          —Matthew 23.16, 18


A vulnerable God will upset insecure people.
Tyrants and bullies who fear how fragile we are
will lash out against whoever reminds them.

And the weak and poor, the vulnerable,
and the children, especially the children, will pay.
Rachel weeps for her little ones in a thousand Bethlehems.
In the notes of our carols, hear her wail,
beneath our jingle bells, her devastated silence.
Round yon virgin is dust; in her lap a blanket
with blood and the smell of a baby’s hair.

This is no intrusion on the Christmas story.
It is the story. God comes, fragile among the fragile,
poor and powerless among the poor.
And this child will die young among them.

Pray for those who mourn these days,
and for those who exercise power.
Sharpen the blades of your hope on the stone of grief;
temper your joy with thirst for healing.
Sit with Rachel. Trust that sometimes
the best way to “keep Christ in Christmas”
is to weep.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Wise one,
        you who have come far,

attend to that yearning within you
        that is given, as if from above.

Do not cease following that star,
        whose light you have seen at his rising.

It will shine in all darkness,
        and no darkness will overcome it.

Let no other glitter distract you,
        no tiresome journey dissuade you.

Fearful powers will try
        to make use of your pilgrimage.

Do not cooperate.
        Follow love alone.

In that light
        you will find the child, always.

You will kneel in unfamiliar places,
        you will uncover gifts.

And you will continue to journey, to search,
        to look with love-lit vision.

Under that star
        there will always be home,

always another road,
        and you will never travel alone.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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           The light shines in the darkness,
           and the darkness can not overcome it.

                         —John 1.5


And the light is the life of all people.
In Gaza, in Ukraine, in Sudan,
the light shines and the darkness can’t overcome it.
In those who trust, who hope, who heal, who bear witness,
the light shines.
Even in those who fear whoever’s not White,
in those who despair of democracy,
or those who consider women as objects,
still, somehow, the light shines.
In days when our love falters and our hope loses its footing
the light shines.
In our deepest apathy and unbelief,
in our worst sin, still the light shines in the darkness.
The light that is the life of all people is our salvation,
shining in the unknown, shining in the unseeable,
now and always, still shining.
Still. Shining.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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           And the Word became flesh
           and lived among us.
                         —John 1.14

The mystery of the Incarnation
is not merely a baby born once upon a time,
but that it is the nature of God’s Word
to become real in our world.

The Word isn’t a thing,
hanging by itself out in space,
but a Word to us, with us,
a conversation, a presence,
living with us, in the flesh.

All flesh is God’s Word made flesh.
We love all people because they are all
bits of God.
We have hope in hard times
because everything has God in it.

The Word isn’t an idea you can understand.
It’s a presence you can trust.

Like shepherds stumbling to the manger
we are always coming to meet God,
always standing before the holy,
always silenced in the presence
of the love that encompasses us,
that holds us in real arms of flesh
that are the whole world.

Alleluia!

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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God comes,
weak and tender,
nursing at a mother’s breast,
and we know we are loved;
we know we are blessed.

Eternal Creator,
heartbeat of all being,
small and sweet,
entrusting yourself to us,
we are saved
from our distrust of you.

Stars adorn us with their light,
friendly and quiet,
make all nights beautiful,
and light our way.

God assumes flesh
and makes all flesh holy.

Strangers include us in their singing.

Despite our striving all we can do is
wonder,
and there
is our salvation.

Alleluia!

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Amid the bustle, may peace guide you.
Despite the noise, may silence speak to you.
Under the lights, may the darkness beckon.
When demands are made of you,
may you be sustained by the gift you are given.
When jolly words frame hidden loneliness,
may you know unshakable love.
When you are surrounded by what is trite and cheesy
and hounded by what is expected and irrelevant,
may you be arrested by wonder,
led by delight, and held with tender love.
When you wait for the surprise that never comes,
may the grace that has always been happening
catch up with you.

Not with earthquake or armies,
but tiny and fragile, quiet and easy to miss,
may the Child come to you.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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I thank you, light,
that you turn but do not depart,
that you wane but never fail,
that you go forth, and you return.

Thank you, sun, for your steadfastness
even as we tilt and turn
Thank you, earth,
that you allow us rest and darkness,
and you offer us light and warmth.

Thank you, darkness,
that you hide and shelter us,
that you guard mysteries
and frame the stars,
and that in trust and humility
you defer to the light.

Thank you, light and dark,
night and day, that you work
so beautifully together,
wedding seen and unseen,
human and divine,
sought and given.

Thank you, God,
that it is in darkness that the light shines.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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           “ The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
                      and the power of the Most High will overshadow you;
            therefore the child to be born will be holy;
                      he will be called Son of God.”
                         —Luke 1.35

With Gabriel’s news the cosmic becomes personal.
Christ is coming—God is embodied— in a new way,
to transform the world,
and whatever that is, it is happening in you.
You are being asked to bear work that will have cosmic ripples.
What is that new act of Creation God is accomplishing in you?
What are signs of God’s new creating in your own heart and life?
Look into your soul. Like gazing into a starry sky,
it will require time for your eyes to adjust,
time for the stars to come out.
Give time and stillness to watch, to wait, to observe.
What holy mystery is the Spirit doing in you?
Wait, and wonder… and say Yes.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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           “You will conceive in your womb
           and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.”
                         —Luke 1.31


God of love,
you have conceived your love in me.
Within me grows your grace, your glory,
your compassion for the world;
within me stirs your tender beauty.

Mary, come and help me.
Help me trust this miracle.
Let this be my prayer always:
“May it be for me according to your word.”

Mary, come and be my midwife.
Give me courage.
Through the labor, through the pain,
hold my hand.

God, help me deliver your love
into the world.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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So often it seems we are so in the mood for Christmas,
but then something awful happens
and it changes everything.
But this is backwards.
Difficulties are constant: awful things happen—
and then Christmas comes along and changes everything.

This is the reason for the season.
“Because these days are dark,” the Beloved says,
“I come to be with you.
I see the pain, the loneliness, the despair.
I feel already the splinters of the manger, the nails.
And—therefore— I have come to be with you.”

Don’t be afraid of the dark days, the broken days,
the hard days, the blank days.
This is where Christmas happens.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Listen to the audio recording:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:13 — 1.7MB)

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