Category: Reflections

             “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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           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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