Just as he was coming up out of the water,
he saw the heavens torn apart
and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.
—Mark 1.10

Underwater it’s quiet.
Deep in God you hear your heart beat
and the Great Silence of the universe.

Only when you come up
do you hear the roar of the world.
Bring the silence with you.

God’s waters break,
the heavens’ womb opens
and you emerge into a wound

torn more than the waters.
Only the divine silence
overcomes the world’s noise.

The Spirit, dove of listening,
descends, and bears you gently
through this torn, raging world.

“The realm of heaven has suffered violence,”
Jesus says, “and the violent take it by force.”
But they needn’t storm the ramparts

of God’s heart torn open,
where we already are.
Life is both an emerging and an entering,

a birthing, from love, into love,
a binding of the wound.
Bring the silence with you.

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

January 7, 2021

          It has now been revealed
           that the Gentiles have become fellow heirs,
           members of the same body,
           and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
                                 —Ephesians 3.5-6

Epiphany is the celebration of the revealing
of God in Christ to all the world,
represented by the magi from another country,
practitioners of another religion.
The “gentiles” are those who are not like us,
people of a different way.

God, help me to reveal your love, to all,
to shine with your light, and light alone—
especially to those who are not like me,
to those of a different way.

Those I disagree with, those I abhor,
are members of the same body.
It is to them I am to reveal your love
and shine with your light.
Shine in me, God of love and light,
shine in me.

Breath prayer:
                      Your light … in me

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

January 6, 2021

         There, ahead of them, went the star
          that they had seen at its rising,
          until it stopped over the place where the child was.
                              —Matthew 2.9

Of course a star doesn’t stop over one place.
What if they’d been off by one house?
They would have entered, and knelt down,
and paid honor to some other child.
They would have seen the divine,
revealed to them by the Spirit.
And, I tell you, the child
would have grown up to become the Messiah.

Kneel and honor whoever you meet,
and go home by your own way.
You will both be blessed.
Trust God to make of them, and of you,
what God will.

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

January 4, 2021

Twelve days seems long,
the gifts nearly forgotten,
the cookies gone;
but the child, remember, is still an infant.
We have a long road ahead of us,
justice on a far horizon,
our wholeness still in swaddling clothes.

The world looks at us oddly
when we say “Merry Christmas” today.
But time, as the prophets already knew, is relative.
Twelve days is more than enough
to finish off the leftovers
but barely enough to fully contemplate.
Ignore the world, hurrying nowhere.
We trust on a longer arc.
The world-bearing journey takes time.
The magi took two years.

It is neither late nor early. It is now.
The path the length of the universe
is no longer than this moment. This.
The infinite unfolds, God acts, today.
The sun rises on this day.
As always,
begin.

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

January 5, 2021

              Having been warned in a dream
              not to return to Herod,
              they left for their own country by another road.
                                          —Matthew 2.12

The star behind us, a new year rising,
just when we thought the search was over
and the treasure found, we hear a warning
to repent, to change our ways,
to embark on a new unknown
off the road where we’re at home.

But we welcome it.
This old one was awful.
The year was hard, the way was rocky.
For all the danger and cruelty
we’re glad not to return to
we give thanks for this gift, so needed, from God:
another road.

Thank you. We’ll take it.

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

December 31, 2020

Go seek that other deep nativity,
not sweet, nor bright, but empty, low and rough,
untouched by desperate activity,
where stillness and the longing are enough.
Wait in this wounded darkness, from whose rend,
where roots of death are woven in the earth,
a child emerges painfully, to mend
with splintered hands the world that gave him birth.
For deep in battered hearts, too cold to feel,
where blood and bones and heaven’s veins enmesh,
God comes, incarnate, altered, bound to heal
the brokenness by living in this flesh.
Let God redeem this life on Christmas morn:
let flesh be Word made flesh; with God be born.

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

December 30, 2020

          The word of God is living and active,
           sharper than any two-edged sword,
           piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow;
           it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
                                 —Hebrews 4.12

           “This child is destined for the falling and the rising
           of many in Israel,
           and to be a sign that will be opposed
           so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—
           and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
                                 —Luke 2.34-35

Not the rise and fall of many, but the falling and rising.
Death first, then resurrection.
(The “sleeping and rising” of the sower, Mark 4.26.)

A “sign” that exposes our resistance.
A sword that separates truth from delusion,
action from wishing.

So. Your inner thoughts.
Not your opinion about Jesus,
but your willingness to die first,
and then rise with him.

Let the sword pierce your heart.
Are you ready—today—to die
(once more, and again…)
and then to be raised?
Or just thinking about it?

Anna and Simeon knew the moment
when they saw it.

Act.

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

December 29, 2020

            When the parents brought in the child Jesus,
            to do for him what was customary under the law,
            Simeon took him in his arms and praised God.
                                    —Luke 2.27-28

The Christ child is no longer in the manger.
The Holy Infant is in your heart now—
beloved, full of God’s possibilities,
warm with God’s gentle presence,
God’s tender newness within you.
Love the Christ child.
And how do you do that?
Sit there, mostly.
Hold the child.
Let the mystery of love flow
between your heart and the child’s.
Like a new parent,
let this become part of your routine.
Give time to simply sit
and hold the divine child in your heart.
Rock the child,
                        rock the child,
                                                rock the child.

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

December 28, 2020

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
For a lot of us this is a weird Christmas, and a hard one.
But the good news is God is with us, Emmanuel.
God comes to be near in our dark times.

I thank you for sharing this journey with me,
and I treasure the spirit that connects us all.
Though I know only a few of you,
I pray for you all, that by grace
you may receive God’s tender blessing.

In these twelve days of Christmas
May Christ be born in your heart,
the presence of God with you and within you,
the love of God alive in you anew,
the companionship of Jesus beside you,
the light of God to show your way.
May the Christ child awaken your love,
and evoke your joy and gratitude.

May your Christmas be truly holy,
deep with love and beauty,
rich with hope and joy.

Deep Blessings,
Steve

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

Christmas morning, 2020

A rough Christmas, rough year.
So much lacking, so much awry.
We’ve lost the way, lost our center.
Pain and weariness under the tree.
We’re beginning to believe
we need saving.
This is why you come, and where:
in our struggles, to be with us;
in our darkness, to be light.
The rough manger,
you know where it is.
O come, O come, Beloved,
in the hard places
put your arm around us
and stay.

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

December 24, 2020