“As I gazed through the ice I wondered, how often do we become frozen and harden, causing our view of what lies ahead to become obscured? My reflection was not abstract or rhetorical, but practical, as I could feel my own heart hardening.”
“When it came time for Isaac to get his shark kite soaring, he had a few more missteps along the way. There were nose dives and immediate flops back to the ground. This is what my heart feels, I think. With every news headline and report from doctors, my heart crashes. Yet, Isaac continued to smile and lift his kite to the wind.”
“My husband moves up beside me, from his assigned place at the back of our trekking line. He puts his gloved hand on my shoulder. We climb higher, together, and I can feel more of the heaviness subside and my stomach settling as we navigate the silhouettes of people, snow and rock.”
“So, thinking of today’s readings, I wonder at a young man and woman willing to uproot themselves, to take only what they could carry on their backs and to go somewhere totally foreign and new, just on the basis of warnings in a dream. Sure, dreams probably had a lot more weight back then than they do now, but even so. I’m sure it wasn’t the usual way to respond.”
“One thing about Jesus was that he didn’t make resolutions. He set himself to live a course of life and kept to it. He had a job to do, and he was determined to do it the way God wanted him to.”
“I also think we see a relatable, human side of Mary, who too often is depicted as either a bloodless doll or who too often becomes nameless, selfless, only viewed through the prism of whose mother she is. She is relieved, and she is frustrated—and rightly so.”
“Faith, the seeing of invisible things, the author to the Hebrews called it, the seeing of a path that is not there. As I walked, I found myself struggling off-trail at times because I’d strayed, trudging through thigh-deep snow.”
“My frustration rises when I can’t find my glasses and I’ve inadvertently kicked my slippers away from me. If only it wasn’t so dark. I take a breath and realize there’s no hurry. Pausing in the room I wonder if this is one of the lessons the darkness is teaching me – to slow down.”
“This year, as we celebrated communion round the breakfast table and its creche, I realized there was one manger that did not have to be put away. And that is the creche of our hearts, where this Christ child snuggles in filled with warmth and love, and with the power of God to light our way home forever.”
“Presiding Bishop Michael Curry offers a prescription that addresses this very concerning decline participation in many of our churches and our lives. Why don’t you consider forming a small group in your congregation to explore how to change our lives to “Live and Act More Like Jesus” in 2022?
‘By God’s grace …'”
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