Bethlehem Bound...Almost There

 

We inch closer to the stable where love’s pure light shines bright.  We tentatively, reverently, and with open hearts cross the threshold into the humble barn where Jesus is born.  We stand in the scratchy straw next to earthy-smelling shepherds, and our souls feel their worth.  Hold the word for Advent that has brought you this far…and once again read these words from John 1, slowly savoring each word.

 

The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word. The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one. Everything was created through him; nothing—not one thing! came into being without him.  What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out. There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light. The Life-Light was the real thing: Every person entering Life he brings into Light. He was in the world, the world was there through him, and yet the world didn’t even notice. He came to his own people, but they didn’t want him.  But whoever did want him, who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he said, He made to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves. These are the God-begotten, not blood-begotten, not flesh-begotten, not sex-begotten. The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Parent, like child, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish. John pointed him out and called, “This is the One! The One I told you was coming after me but in fact was ahead of me. He has always been ahead of me, has always had the first word.”  We all live off his generous abundance, gift after gift after gift. We got the basics from Moses, and then this exuberant giving and receiving, This endless knowing and understanding— all this came through Jesus, the Messiah. No one has ever seen God, not so much as a glimpse. This one-of-a-kind God-Expression, who exists at the very heart of the Parent, has made holy plain as day.

 

A vulnerable infant, we proclaim amid a world drunk on power, is one-of-a-kind God-Expression.  

Wait, re-read that sentence for our contradictory counter-culturalism.  A baby ~ weak and dependent ~ is God?  

Jesus exists at the very heart of the Parent made holy plain and in the flesh.  Jesus reflected God’s presence with a brilliant boldness and belovedness that awakens our souls to live differently.  Jesus sparked a flame of hope, peace, joy, and love within us ~ lighting the way to this holy week.  Jesus' birth is not just some historical event from the past, but it is still part of your life right here and now.  

How have you prepared a manger-size place for Jesus this Christmas?  

Please do not read that question with any shame or dripping with not enough-ness or drenched with shoulds and oughts.  You are where you are.  If God can find space in a drafty, dusty barn, God can make a space in your soul today, even if you are racing around still trying to find a gift for someone.  God can find a space amid the burnt sugar cookies, the words spoken in exhaustion to a clerk, to the less-than-warm-and-fuzzy thoughts you had in traffic yesterday.  

Jesus’ birth isn’t about our perfect preparations, but our willingness in this moment ~ here and now ~ to say, “O come, o come Emmanuel.”  Say and sing those words with me, “O come, o come Emmanuel.”  Because as soon as that word, “Emmanuel,” falls from your lips, it becomes reality ~ God with us (that what Emmanuel means).  God with you, right now, in the beautiful brokenness in the eternal incompleteness.  In the holy holes of our lives that look like a moth-feasted-on garment.  You are God’s beloved.  There is already a manger in your heart, just see it, step close to it, and kneel before the One who helps your soul feel alive.  May God’s hope, peace, joy, and love guide you this week and every week in 2026.  Amen.