Advent 2025, Day 9 Matthew 2:1-12 Across the world, across kingdoms, across epochs of silence, they wait and watch. Men of power. Kingmakers. Wisdom-wielders. Keepers of dark mystery. They study prophecy and believe it, and they still look for the coming promise, words planted in their kingdom centuries ago by worshippers of the one true God. … Continue reading Pilgrimage
Luke 2:8-21 I can almost see God grinning. When you look at it from heaven’s perspective, this story he is writing is great fun. So far, we have an infertile old couple, a teenage virgin and her penniless betrothed from a tiny nowhere village, and a couple of impossible pregnancies. Now the son of God … Continue reading Lowly
Advent, Day 2 Luke 1:5-25 For so many years they had prayed. And always the answer was no. They kept serving God, faithfully following day after day, carrying the disappointment that grew heavier by the year. Surely, though, they wondered why, took it by turns to rage and weep and beg for the child they … Continue reading Incense
Maybe they told me about the tearing, that I would wish to die before the end. But of course I didn’t understand. Somehow I thought, maybe, You’d come easy, slipping in among us like a soft word. But is birth ever so compliant? No, I see now, You came for it all, all in … Continue reading Mother of God
Incarnation These things I will remember, will fold them up small and tuck them away to ponder. The slow breath of animals, the silent, patient eyes. Their wordless acceptance of this entrance through blood and pain and the tearing of flesh. Removed from judgment, from the sharp stabs of gossiping tongues, they watch, … Continue reading Advent, Week 4 (Love): Mary
They call him a righteous man, a holy man. They look to him for leadership, for answers. He is supposed to know things. But knowing a thing is easier than believing it. You can check all the boxes and speak all the words, you can even lead a people to worship, while your own mind … Continue reading Advent, Week Three (Joy): Zecharias
Barren like a plowed field lying fruitless, a land too poor to produce sustenance, absent of any thing significant. Like a withered stalk, an empty hold, a shard, like the well run dry. Devoid of meaning or value, unable to be beautiful. This is how they adorn her. They, the womb-blessed, see … Continue reading Advent, Week Three (Joy): Elizabeth
Sometimes, being an outcast has its advantages. When you are cast out, you are alone. You might be lonely, yes, and you might be hurt by their rejection, or bitter, or even despairing. But also, you are quiet. You have time to think, and to look, and to wonder. And sometimes other outcasts join you, … Continue reading Advent, Week Two (Peace): Shepherd
I am a king-maker. A wisdom-wielder. A keeper of dark mystery. For hundreds of years we have shaped the world. One might even say we have controlled it. Men seek us out. They rely on our wisdom for guidance, as they have for generations. I understand ambition. I know well the pull for prominence, the … Continue reading Advent, Week Two (Peace): Magi
Yes, there was the first agony of thinking she had been unfaithful. His Mary, beloved, longed-for, waited-for. She had not waited for him? Could she really have done this thing? His desire to shield her from public shame speaks of his love for her and his integrity. Yes, Joseph was a good man. And what … Continue reading Advent, Week Two (Peace): Joseph
View from the Valley 