Reflection

The glass of the ornament reflected me back to me.
My hands abnormally large.
The other decorations nearby distorted.
Ornament comes from the Greek to be mean, "Cosmos".
Could it be in one ornament is an entire galaxy?

So small I could hold the vastness in my hand?
So fragile one slip of my grip would cause thousands of sharp shards scattering?
So beautiful I can see why the Greeks thought of the universe when gazing at ornaments.

We need places and especially people who reflect back to us.
We need to hold in our hands something that is at once small and yet larger than we could imagine.
We need to sense You, O God, moving with traces of grace not only at Christmas but as we turn the calendar to the next month.

"Every hour," O God, the hymn prayerfully proclaims that, "I need thee."
Heartfelt.
Honest.
Humble.
Words that seem to be in short supply during this year.
As the bickering and bitterness and back-biting human ways take hold.
As Christmas trees are tossed aside and Christmas Carols go back into hibernation.
As life goes back to normal, we all still long to reflect...radiate You.

Let this prayer, these words, inspire and conspire with You as January gives way to February.
Let our whole lives, what we say to neighbors and post on the internet, be interrupted by Your wisdom.
Let our songs still raise with Joy to the World of the way You came to be laid Away in a Manger while Hark! the Herald Angels Sing with the sweet melody of Angels from the Realms of God.  

The truth, that, "This, this is Christ our King whom shepherd guard and angels sing."
May those words be as true today and next month as they were when we sang them a little over a month ago.

In the name of the One who is more than a trace of Your grace incarnate, Jesus our Christ.

Amen.