Bethlehem Bound

 

But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.

 

You are beloved.  If you hear nothing else this Advent season, know that you are God’s beloved.  If you carry any promise and prayer from Advent into 2026, hold onto the truth that God’s love has you and holds you.  To be sure, God’s love is not bubble wrap.  It won’t stop the stumbles, bumbles, heartbreak, and soul ache.  God’s love is not a money-back guarantee or promise of the “good life”.  Living as God’s beloved doesn’t mean that it is all pony rides beside a chocolate river in the Willie Wonka Chocolate Factory. 

Nope.  

Some storms drench us.  Some floods sweep us off our feet.  There is pain that no amount of binge watching, screen staring, spiked eggnog consuming, or shopping sprees can save us from.  We numb ourselves because sometimes the ache is too much to bear.  We numb ourselves because it is a culturally acceptable way to deal with the hurt.  We numb ourselves in our attempt to find what our restless hearts long to encounter ~ which is love.  To be sure, there is a gap between our proclamation of God’s love and our experience of that holy affection.  Sometimes what gets in the way between us and God is our own busyness and stubbornness.  Sometimes the obstacle between us and God is societal ~ the strains of trying to make ends meet, or getting kicked off your health insurance, or medical issues that confound the doctors who too quickly leave the room because they cannot cure you.  

Hold this.  

To believe in God’s love is not to say that everything will be roses, but it is to lean into a promise that Divine love is at work in us and through us and seeking us every day.  God so loves the world, John 3 proclaims, that God came in the flesh on earth.  This is scandalous!  God, who is holy, enters this bruised, broken, beautiful world to walk with us.  Not just in a barn two thousand years ago, but again and again and again every day in your life and mine.  Faith is a pair of eyeglasses that helps us focus on God’s arrival in our ordinary lives.  The word you are carrying to the manger is meant to be a magnifying glass to observe this ordinary life.  May you open your heart vulnerably, as God vulnerably came to earth, to find afresh and anew today God’s love has you and won’t ever let you go.  Amen.