Go gently

 Go gently

Let us enter the new year with curiosity

Curiosity that insists that we listen attentively

to hear another’s story

for each story matters

and uniquely contributes to the whole

Let us enter the new year with compassion

Compassion that enables us to care for self and others

embracing our shared humanity with compassion

that brings insight and affords space to care

Let us enter the new year with courage

Courage that enables us to be honest in our vulnerability

acknowledging the weariness and fear that often lurks

beneath our facade of strength

Curiousity, Compassion, Courage

Companions that will accompany us gently

into a new year

(Liz Crumlish December 2022)

Into the darkness

 

Isaiah 9:2

The people who walked in darkness

have seen a great light;

those who lived in a land of deep darkness—

on them light has shined.

The Christ child comes to us

in the dark

For God is no stranger to darkness

And the light that shines

is the light of knowing

that there is one

who knows that darkness

from the inside out

One who does not fear the darkness

or leave us to it

but who comes to us

and stays with us

Stays with us in our loss and grieving

Stays with us in our fear and anger

Stays with us in our impotence and confusion

Stays with us whether our darkness is visible

or carefully masked from others

The Christ child comes to us

and stays with us 

in the dark

Advent happens

 

When our usual preparations for Christmas

fail to lighten our spirits

God is still with us

When we find ourselves going through the motions

hiding well the hollowness within

God is still with us

Should the tree remain in storage

and the crib scene languish in its bubble wrap packing

God is still with us

The advent of God

does not rest on our preparedness

but on God’s gift of love and grace 

So - for those who are exhausted faking it

God is born for you.

For those who continue to put on a brave face

God is born for you.

God is born into the reality

of loss and grief

of anxiety and despair

God’s tears join ours in our yearning for those we love

And when we find ourselves on our knees

God squats down beside us

acknowledging our pain, 

embracing our weariness

enfolding us in love.

This Christmas, as every Christmas

We are invited to approach the manger as we are

in our frailty

and disappointment

in our questioning

and disillusionment

in our tiredness

and disorientation

We are invited to sit with the baby God

who inhabits vulnerability 

as a way of being

as a way of being real

as a way of being cradled in the love of God

as a way of knowing

God is born for you.

(Liz Crumlish December 2022)