Christmas Eve

This birth (any birth for that matter) is a miracle. But this one especially. A teenage mother, belly stretched far beyond capacity or comfort, searches for a place to not only rest, but to give birth. A baby is born amid hay and feed. Their first visitors were shepherds, of- ten viewed by some as the outcasts of society. This is the way God chose to meet us, not with power and opulence, but with tenderness and fragility on full display.

Something that took place over 2000 years ago still resounds through us today. Christ is born tonight. “A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,” the Advent hymn invites us to sing along. Christ’s birth is real- ized hope. One of truth, compassion, restoration, and justice. But it’s not a hope just available for those at the tippy top. It’s hope for the rest of us. For the anxious. For the afraid. For the vulnerable. For the not-feeling-so-joyful. For the overwhelmed and at- the-end-of-their-rope. For the least of these. For the left-out and the lonely. For the weary.

For each of us and the whole world alongside us. We rejoice together for Christ has been born, the Emmanuel, God with us. Thanks be to God. (from Kate Bowler)

O Holy Night: Diana Trout, Austin Ludwig

https://youtu.be/_0BtobCPP4c?si=OAdrz09UB7ACOb-d

Blessing for Christmas Eve

You are here. What a wonder.

Robed in the everyday majesty

of a newborn.

So beautiful, so soft, so new.

Perfect in the terrifying fragility

that thrills every parent.

“Watch his head!”

“Look at those tiny fingernails.”

God become human,

blinking at strange, new surroundings.

All wisdom and power

poured into a smallness

that knows hunger and gravity

and unseen urgency for your mother’s skin.

And Mary, so newly parted from you,

turns her thoughts to the impossible

angelic visitation that promised

you’d come.

And she knew, somehow,

staring at your eyelashes,

that you were a great reversal,

here to put all things right.

Blessed are we when our hearts

warm with her.

You’re here. And we are too,

newly come to worship

with kings and shepherds

and barn animals and angels

as you light up the world on

this holiest, loveliest night.

(Kate Bowler)

Merry Christmas with love, from Linda and Donna.

May the promises of Advent: truth, compassion, restoration and justice continue to be born in you. Christ is Born!

Resource:

Bowler, Kate (2024). The Weary World Rejoices: An Advent Guide from Everything Happens. This is a resource that we are following throughout the advent season. Feel free to download the daily or weekly guide.