There will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Luke 2:12

I confess I sometimes sympathize with the Grinch.  I look for ways to stop Christmas from coming. The closer it gets, the more trouble I  have finding signs of anything except materialism, nihilism and human loss.  I desire to flee.

Fortunately, God doesn't think the way I do!  He doesn't run away from us; he comes to find us.  He doesn't condemn us, but looks for the good and the true in us.  He finds it too. The truth is, love and kindness are everywhere, if we are small and still enough to recognize them.

The sign God gives is so simple and quiet, it could so easily be lost in the busyness of commerce - except it's not.  Over the centuries, this sign has spoken to human hearts continually.  Here's the answer to human longing, given without conditions or  condemnations. As often as we overlook that answer, God offers it again. Christmas doesn't happen once a year; it's with us always, as God is with us, forever, unconditionally.

Mary Marrocco

O Lord, you have probed me and you know me. – Psalm 130:1

There are parts of us that we keep secret even from friends.  Like those cursed in a fairy story, we fear to open some doors.  In a quiet moment, what hides in locked rooms creeps out and roams the house. Is it regret or shame or sin? For haunted people it is hard for us to tell.

By any measure it is hard to beat the joy of being known and loved.  A day comes and we let someone into the recesses of the self.  One who is no stranger to  trouble wins our trust.  In fear, we hand our broken parts over to their care.  In amazement we do not vanish.  The power of grace becomes real. Whoever knew that we could be so alive?  In labor, the woman struggles to hang on. With new life come the tears of joy.

God comes knocking. He doesn't plan to stay. In the words of an old prayer, God says "I like what I see."


God, please keep knocking.

 Jeanne Schuler