Merry Christmas!!

 

Blessing That Meets You in Love — Jan Richardson

It is true that / every blessing begins / with love,
that whatever else / it might say,
love is always / precisely its point.

But it should be noted / that this blessing
has come today / especially to tell you
it is crazy about you.

That it has been / in love with you / forever.

That it has never / not wanted / to see your face,
to go through this world / in your company.

This blessing thought / it was high time
it told you so, just to make sure / you know.

If it has been shy / in saying this,
it has not been / for any lack of / wanting to.

It’s just that / this blessing / knows the risk
of offering itself / in a way that / will so alter you—

not because it thinks / you could stand / some improving,
but because this is / simply where / loving leads.

This blessing knows / how love undoes us,
unhinges us, unhides us.

It knows / how loving
can sometimes feel / like dying.

But today / this blessing / has come to tell you / the secret
that sends it / to your door:
that it gives itself / only to those / willing to come alive;
that it vows itself / only to those
ready to be / born anew.

 

A Blessing for Love to Come at Christmas by Kate Bowler

 

God, we are waiting for love,

not the simple kind or the sweep-you-off-your-feet kind,

but the absurd kind.

 

The kind wrapped in rags,

resting in a bucket of animal feed.

Love enough to save us all.

 

Blessed are we who look for Love

deeper, fuller, truer—than we have ever known,

than we could have ever hoped for.

 

Blessed are we who seek You,

the light that dawned so long ago

in that dark stable.

Love given.

Love received.

Receive this gift, dear one.

Love has come for you.  Amen.

 

May the hope, peace, love, and joy of this Christmas Day find a manger size space in your heart to rest and reside every day in 2024.  With God’s love to you, beloved ~