Month: January 2024

             “Flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you;
             for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”
                               Matthew 2.13

Who would choose grief
when escape was possible?

Behind them a voice in Ramah,
a field of tiny graves.

Gold spent, frankincense burned,
only the myrrh lasted, sweet aroma of death.

How could they possibly have known
where they were going, purposely lost
to avoid erasure, to stay real?

Little baby Jesus, carried on your mother’s back,
shoveled by sorrow
from childhood into this breathing grave
you spent your life climbing out of,
your daddy would know when it was safe to return.

When were you able to know
when it was not safe to return, and to choose
to return anyway?

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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         Magi came asking,
         “Where is the child who has been born king?”
         When King Herod heard this, he was frightened.
                                          —from Matthew 2.1-3

As he should be.
Jesus is a threat to any regime.
His empire is grace; his rule is justice; his power is love.
It unseats tyrants.

But before he changes the world he changes us.
We become his subjects,
forsaking all the empires of this world.
Like the magi, we spurn domination.
We kneel, surrender our willfulness,
let go our fears and desires,
and abandon ourselves to him.
We give him power over us—
and he gives us his power through us—
so our will is not to exert power
but to allow grace to happen.

The homage of the magi
is the fiercest kind of loyalty and courage
Herod can’t stand, and can’t withstand:
to submit to the power of love and grace,
and not to any empire.
Let this be your pledge of allegiance.

         Grace reigns.

         Kneel and allow.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldilight.net
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The eighth day of Christmas,
the eighth day of Creation,
the Next New Day,
New Years Day.

May every day be a new year’s day for you:
a chance to forgive and be forgiven,
to start again.
May you take courage to begin anew,
to become who you are becoming,
this and every day.

As you let go of the year past,
may you let go of all the habits and coping tricks
you no longer need or value.
Let go, and in your free fall find yourself held
by an eternal love that has come ages to be with you,
and will carry you all the way to the end.
As the future stretches out before you
on your journey toward God may you always know
you have arrived, and always will have arrived.

Every day may you trust your belovedness,
your freedom from having to prove yourself,
and receive the grace that is given to you.

May this year be a year of grace and hope.

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