Monday morning blessing

 

On this first Monday of a New Year, this blessing doesn’t need you to brush your hair or teeth or put on a different shirt.  This blessing isn’t here to check in on how you are doing with your resolutions.  This blessing doesn’t come with demands or decrees (like Caesar); doesn’t ask you to drop everything immediately or you might miss out, supplies are limited.

 

Nope.  None of that.

 

There is abundance and spaciousness in this blessing.

 

You don’t have to pick up the strands of tinsel still laying in the carpet or rummage around the refrigerator to serve this blessing something other than leftovers.  This blessing isn’t here to inspect or interrogate or investigate.  This blessing is interested in you; the real you ~ you sometimes hide.  The you ~ you made all those promises to transform yesterday.  The you ~ who can frustrate and flummox and fascinate at moments in baffling, bewildering ways.  This blessing doesn’t come with expectations, but with anticipation that you would fling open your heart to receive what this blessing offers:

 

Receive a gift of grace.

Be led by a gift of love.

Be planted in the soil of peace.

Let hope find home, even amid the clutter.

Join hands with joy who sees you…yes the you with messy hair…as created in God’s image.

 

On this first Monday of a New Year, breathe and be in God’s presence.  In this continuing season of Christmas let the truths of God entering your life come for a visit.  Keep holding on to the truth that God arrives in a stable ~ so God is comfortable amid the clutter and chaos of our lives.  On this nineth day of Christmas, we continue to enter the marvel and mystery of this season. 

 

Today, I invite you to list Aha moments from 2022 ~ times you learned something new, a book you read that opened your imagination, an insight into faith or life.  List moments you were aware of God’s presence.  Where did awe leave you speechless in wonder?  Where did hope take hold of your heart?  Where did peace like a river flood your soul? 

 

I don’t know if I can give “homework” in a morning meditation but take this as an invitation to look back at your life over the last year for times when blessings showed up unannounced in your life.  And may remembering and recalling God’s presence woven into the ordinary help you open to God who continues to show up disguised as your life this year.  Amen.