We light this candle with love.
Below is a reflection of Luke 2:15-20. On this day after Christmas, how do we remember those things that matter?
Luke 2:15-20
"And Mary committed all these things to memory and considered them carefully."
How do we remember what really matters?
If Mary, Joseph, or the shepherds are anything like you and I, they remember in snippets. Fiercely clear, full of detail, but in bits and pieces. Like moving photos, sensory snapshots, of the past.
The exhaustion after harried journey.
Black-and-white, static-filled memories of remembered pain.
Flashes of kind, unknown womens’ faces.
The sweat and struggle,
and then the mewl of a tiny, brand-new voice.
The mud and stone walls, the shuffling of animals.
The fullness of silence after long effort,
and the night out the small window,
bright-burning with stars.
The candles, their flicker and glow.
In the half-light, a small, soft face, all nose and eyes, familiar and totally new.
A so-small hand, a wondering gaze.
In all things, mystery. In all things, grace.
The knock of late-night strangers, nobodies — shepherds arrived to look with wide-amazed eyes at this strange, mundane thing:
a new family, huddled against the animals.
Here, right here,
Promises, long-felt, long-whispered,
now seen and touched.
The beauty of this moment,
its sweetness — the sublime and the mundane,
Everything as had been told,
Everything as it should be.
And each one quietly wondering about the greatness
and the sadness
and the fullness
of what may be
yet to come.
The sublime and the mundane.
*This reflection was originally written by the Rev. Anna Kendig. It was originally posted on the website http://advent2013communitydevotional.wordpress.com/
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