To you is born this day
in the city of David
a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Holy One.
—Luke 2.11
On a cold night, bundled in our fears,
tired from taking care of ourselves,
we come, curious:
maybe there’s something here for us.
Angels promised a savior,
but this is no one who could bail us out:
a mere infant, who could never fight for us,
or overwhelm our enemies,
sneak us out of the trouble we’re in
or take for us the lashes we have coming.
This is no one who could strike a bargain for us.
How could this one save us from the failure
of the lives we were meant to live?
He gazes up at us serenely
with utter trust, and, somehow it seems,
all the love of heaven and earth.
We are struck. Without our willing it,
something in us shifts. Opens.
A deep river long frozen thaws out
and begins to flow, a love beyond our command,
that frees us from all we fear or desire.
By his grace we love, and are saved.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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