Be patient, beloved,
         until the coming of the Lord.
         The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth,
         being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains.
         You also must be patient.
         Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.
                  —James 5.7-8

Hope is not wishing: no, not that tentative.
Hope is not wanting: no, not that self-centered.
Hope is trust in grace unseen,
already there, already unfolding,
the seed beneath, the child within.
Hope is surrender to a greater movement,
acceptance that I am the thread
and the tapestry is vast.
Hope is confidence in spring as winter approaches.
Hope is belief in the fullness of time.
Hope is knowing in death and suffering
there is a healing presence.
Hope is patience, letting grace take its time.
Hope is planting ourselves in a future
that exists only in our acting:
raising children, loving enemies, planting trees.
Hope is awaiting the One Who is Here.

___________
Breath prayer:

         Hope … here.

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

December 9, 2019

        Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees;
         every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit
         is cut down and thrown into the fire.
                  —Matthew 3.10

Oh, John, you maniac,
making Christmas such a brutal thing,
chopping at our Christmas trees,
these sedative, tinseled trees of appetite
whose decorations shield our self-absorption,
so good for hanging, but not for fruit
that might awaken us,
open our eyes to the threat we pose
to black bodies or hungry mouths or foreign faces,
that might loosen our idolatry of power,
that might change us, year to identical year.

What will you come after next?
The Promised One, this powerless child,
with all that winnowing, that unquenchable fire,
what ruin will he bring? Declare the Jubilee?
Tear down the walls and bars, set the captive free?
What will that cost us?

Lord, deliver me. Overnight, free shipping.
Deliver to my doorstep parties and parcels
and carols of merriment but not the pause to look,
not self-awareness, not change, not repentance.
Never mind the child in the night, never mind
the cries beneath the carols, never mind
the ax lying at the root of the trees.

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

December 6, 2019

         The wolf shall live with the lamb,
         the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
         and a little child shall lead them.
                         — Isaiah 11.6
                  
It’s easy to get the lion to lie down with the lamb.
It just takes a lot of lambs.

We have to be willing to be strong yet vulnerable.
We need to have the courage of mercy
in the face of rage.
We have to risk our power and privilege.
It takes gutsy lambs.
And it takes a lot of them.
Not all will survive.
This is what scares us away.
God may not step in and change them.
We might have to lie down in front of them first.

So the little child comes to lead us,
to show us how to be strong in love,
how to be fearless against injustice,
how to find the power of powerlessness,
how to be willing to lie down with lions.

Jesus, come and make us gutsy lambs.

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

December 5, 2019

         The wolf shall live with the lamb…
         and a little child shall lead them.
                  — Isaiah 11.6

God, there are wolves and lambs in me,
kind spirits and angry ones.
Make gentle my bitter wolves,
and defend the lambs of mercy.
Heal the wounds that feed my rage,
and give courage to my love.
Grant that the wolf renounce its appetites,
the lamb surmount its fears.

May the Christ child lead wolf and lamb together,
that I may be whole, and all of me welcomed.
May I find joy in what is strong and gentle
and in the power of tenderness,
and gratitude for creatures who all need each other.

Christ child, lead me to a place of peace.

……
Breath prayer:
         Wolf and lamb … together

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

December 4, 2019

         Prepare the way of the Holy One,
         make God’s paths straight
                  —Matthew 3.3

Is there room for the child in the inn?
How do I prepare a way for God
through my cluttered life?
How do I clear a straight path
through my schedule?

Some things have to be moved or tossed,
a vacancy created.
How my nature abhors this vacuum!

Shall I plead I can’t squeeze God in?
Or take courage and prepare a way?

God, help me to open a way for you
to enter my heart, my time, my desires.
Even when I want so many other things,
give me grace to want you.
Prepare your way in me.
Make room.

Breath prayer:

         Prepare… your way

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

December 3, 2019

         You know what time it is,
                  how it is now the moment
                  for you to wake from sleep.
         For salvation is nearer to us now
                  than when we became believers;
         the night is far gone,
                  the day is near.
                           —Romans 13.11-12
                  
How little my despair
actually knows,
sure as it it is.
How willingly I believe
my unseeing night,
accept such a small world.
But it extends beyond,
beyond my imagining.
Your grace moves beneath us
tectonically, the core seethes.
Unswayed by the certainty
of my doubt
the earth turns,
your dawn rolls
toward me.

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

December 2, 2019

        The night is far gone, the day is near.
        Let us then cast off the works of darkness
         and put on the armor of light. 
                  — Romans 13.12

Confident that the Graceful One is coming—
not in a shower of stars to startle empires
but manger-humble—
and coming any moment—
be done with the hard armor of this world
that disguises despair,
that covers fear and self-doubt,
the helmet of apathy and the breastplate of cynicism,
the mail coat of not having to get involved,
the shield of violence and domination.

Instead let this be your only armor:
that you shine with light,
that you are clothed in the Beloved—
not because it shields you from suffering
but because it gives you courage to love.
In this you yourself become
a sign of the Coming,

and indeed
in this
the Loving One
comes. 

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

November 29, 2019

The Beloved has hidden
in every thing
and with unrestrained generosity
gives gifts of wondrous kinds
in every moment,
every moment.
You can see this miracle
only by giving thanks.
You can actually behold
the divine presence
only by opening your heart
in gratitude.

With every breath,
even when troubled,
give thanks.

May your day be
truly grateful.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
November 28, 2019

As I write this I’m fixing breakfast for my grandkids,
typing and scrambling eggs
and carrying on a silly conversation.

Sometimes they wanted the Rabbi for themselves
but he was giving himself to everybody.
and sometimes they couldn’t find him
because he was out in the desert by himself.
But when they thought they had him he said,
“No, let’s go on to the other villages,”
And sometimes they wanted him to hurry on
but he lingered and listened to a woman’s story,

Sometimes I need to do paperwork
and sometimes it’s an escape.

God, help me today
to be attentive to what’s going on
and where you are in it,
and stick with you.
Help me to be mindful,
and to give myself
to the right thing.

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

November 27 2019

Year after year the geese come,
                                    and go,

and here they are again, gliding over
the turning leaves, turning my head.

Sometimes regrets come honking, I can
hear them but I can’t see them.

                                    Honking. Or hopes,
honking, rowing smoothly through the air.

These birds will fly thousands of miles
uncharted but known.

                                    I long, don’t we all,
for that bird way of knowing: not certainty,

but an untroubled harmony with the way things are,
                                    a way of happening.

Amazing, the way from here to there,
                                    and how they find it.

For the moment they settle on a quiet spot
in the stream, and find food on the murky bottom.

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

November 26, 2019