I’ll wrap him, warm with love,
well as I’m able,
In my heart stable.
~ Luci Shaw
Pause before all that may wait for you today, whether a massive amount of cooking or a solitary meal, a journey, or settling in with a good book or a favourite show.
Now, is the moment just after.
All during Advent we have been preparing, longing, opening.
It has been the moment just before.
Now, is the moment just after.
Can you feel it? I believe you can, if you let yourself.
Jesus stirring in his mother’s arms.
God stirring in you.
Recall the reading from Luke.
While they were there, the time came for Mary to deliver her child.
And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth
And laid him in a manger, because there was no room for place for them in the inn
There’s so much to this story, so sharply poignant as we recall all those in the world for whom there is no room. This story tells their story and ours. There is so much in this holy story. Enough to last our whole lives. But for now; this is where we begin. With the mystery of this child. What will this God gift reveal to you about who you are and who you are called to be in the world? What will this gift reveal about the way God continues to love and create us?
Perhaps you sang Silent Night last night.
Here are some Christmas morning words to that tune to let sing in you today.
Silent night, Holy Light,
In the dark came delight.
Morning soft with the breath of a child,
Fills our hearts with the wonder and wild
Shape a cradle of me
Shape a cradle of me. (CES)
(to the tune of Silent Night)
Don’t let the story languish in the building where it was told in so many beautiful ways last night. Carry the hush and the improbability, the awe of the mother and the joyful and anxious tears of the father into your day. We are just beginning.
God has found a way to weave God’s self into our very bodies to make us new.
Incarnation.
Pause . . .
remember . . .
Feel the wonder of it in you, now.
This is the moment just after; it unfolds forever.
Thanks be to God.
Really, this is the first day of 12 days of Christmas.
If you’d like to honour this celebration that is too big for a single day to hold you can find Pocket Pauses for the 12 Days of Christmas here.
