Scripture: Luke 2:1-5
Journal: Where are you in your journey to Bethlehem? What has the season of Advent been like for
you? Are you ready for the Christ to be
born anew in your heart?
Reflection:
Says a country legend told every year:
Go to the barn on Christmas Eve and see
what the creatures do as that long night tips over.
Down on their knees they will go, the fire
of an old memory whistling through their minds!
I went. Wrapped to my eyes
against the cold
I creaked back the barn door and peered in.
From town the church bells spilled their midnight music,
and the beasts listened—
yet they lay in their stalls like stone.
Oh the heretics!
Not to remember Bethlehem,
or the star as bright as the sun,
or the child born on a bed of straw!
To know only of the dissolving Now!
Still they drowsed on—
citizens of the pure, the physical world,
they loomed in the dark: powerful
of body, peaceful of mind,
innocent of history.
Brothers! I whispered. It is Christmas!
And you are
no heretics, but a miracle,
Immaculate
still as when you thundered forth
On the
morning of creation!
As for Bethlehem, that blazing star
still sailed the dark, but only looked for me.
Caught in its light, listening again to its story,
I curled against some sleepy beast, who nuzzled
my hair as though I were a child, and warmed me
the best it could all night.
~Christmas Poem by Mary Oliver
Prayer
Closing
Prayer: The time is near, Lord Jesus. We are filled with joyful expectation of your
arrival. Prepare our hearts to receive
you, whenever and however you choose to come.
Amen.
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