Searching for and Seeking out

 

Love is continually searching for and seeking out the sacred, which is where we find our hope and peace and joy.  In some way, maybe we should light the candle of love first, because this is both our beginning and ending.  You are born beloved, called to shine/share your belovedness, and the last words God says as you breathe your last is, “You are my beloved!”  How to live this way is less about some easy to follow, step-by-step system I could sell you, and more about mystery and mistakes and miscues and moments we want a rewind button to take back what we said, and marvel and so much more.  Love is where we reside, rest because that is where we discover God again and again.  So pray with me these beautiful words by Ann Weems.

 

In Search of Our Kneeling Places by Ann Weems

In each heart lies a Bethlehem,
an inn where we must ultimately answer
whether there is room or not.
When we are Bethlehem-bound
we experience our own advent in his.
When we are Bethlehem-bound
we can no longer look the other way
conveniently not seeing stars
not hearing angel voices.
We can no longer excuse ourselves by busily
tending our sheep or our kingdoms.

This Advent let’s go to Bethlehem
and see this thing that the Lord has made known to us.
In the midst of shopping sprees
let’s ponder in our hearts the Gift of Gifts.
Through the tinsel
let’s look for the gold of the Christmas star.
In the excitement and confusion, in the merry chaos,
let’s listen for the brush of angels’ wings.
This Advent, let’s go to Bethlehem
and find our kneeling places.