I’ve been thinking about the true gift of Christmas. I’ve been writing this Advent about preparing, waiting, repenting, finding joy, and opening to being restored by a loving God which redeems our hearts, our lives, this world. The last couple days I’ve been sitting in the darkness of these days allowing past and present darkness to haunt me a bit. That is easy enough to do this time of year for many of us. What has kept swirling in my mind and heart is this, “Caroline, get clear about what it is you are preparing and waiting for. Why are you repenting and opening to being restored? Why does your life need redeeming? What is all of this really about in a way that will make a difference come Christmas Day?”
And, what I’ve come up with is grace. God knit us together with love, and vision, and hope. Wove us with deep and abiding beautiful human nature out of his Divine love. The prayer book says that Grace is God's favor toward us, unearned and undeserved; by grace God forgives our sins, enlightens our minds, stirs our hearts, and strengthens our wills. Advent is preparing, waiting, making room to receive the Christ child anew so that come Christmas there is a mansion in our hearts, our lives, our world to receive the good news of a loving God RIGHT HERE WITH US- Jesus, Emmanuel.
In my Advent Four nugget I shared I think so many of us yearn for more room for God in our lives. We would love nothing more than to have Chip and Joanna Gaines restore our tiny apartment for Jesus into a mansion. But, we can’t get past the barriers of our very real, demanding, full lives. We resolve ourselves that this is the best we can do. We may even cry out in times of pain and need, “Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.” But, would we know if God was offering restoration in our dreams? Could we tell if God was showing the light of his support? Would we recognize a sign if God sent one? Would we know if God was with us and guiding us?
In Advent we practice making room, we clear the way, we prepare to receive so that come this day of Christmas and the season of Christmastide we can celebrate Christ coming into our hearts, lives, world yet again. It could sound boring to do this ritual over and over again- preparing, waiting, and then receiving Jesus, The Light of the World again. And, yet, in all our humanity and humility, we need this gift more than any other gift. We need to receive The Light anew, receive the grace of a loving God by way of his son Jesus. This is THE GIFT we receive today and through the season of Christmastide AND carry with us through the entire year.
When we receive Christ anew and his Light that penetrates the darkness, we receive God’s love for us, God’s favor towards us that cannot be earned nor will we ever truly deserve. We can drop the hustle, friends. We cannot earn God’s love in this crazy old world. We cannot make ourselves worthy of love and belonging. By the grace of God we simply already are deeply loved and belong to the most gracious and loving God we could even begin to imagine. And, this gift changes EVERYTHING.
What if every day we woke up remembering we have been gifted grace? Grace resides in every single fiber of our being. Grace runs through our cells and travels through our veins. We are made of God’s favor. We can deny it, but it doesn’t change the reality that this is who we are, this is how we were woven together, this gift cannot be taken away from us.
There is NOTHING you can do to separate yourself from a loving God. NOTHING. Our minds can create all kinds of separation from God and fabrications and play tricks on us. Our minds can create all sorts of simple or extraordinary justifications for why we are or should be separate from God- things we’ve done, things we haven’t done, things we meant to do, things that happened to us, things that happened to other people. Shit happens. It’s life. AND, God is with us in all the messy shit of life and death and broken hearts and shattered dreams. God fills the gaps of where we are in our lives and where we yearn to be. God is the great equalizer. God is the great redeemer.
God is The One who can sweep into the empty mangers of our hearts (if we’re willing to let go even for a second all the stuff we’ve been hoarding there attempting to ease our bleeding hearts) and leave the gift of grace. The gift that whispers to us on Christmas morning and every morning if we make time for that daily visitation… “I am here with you. My favor, goodness and love is with you every single day. I am here. Please stop blocking my love; I read your blocks as you don’t trust I love you and deemed you worthy of all human and divine love. I interpret your blocks as you don’t trust I wove you into belonging and no one can kick you out. I forgive you for every way you have tried to separate from and block my love. I’m here each and every day to enlighten your mind, stir your heart, and strengthen and graft your will to mine. I’m here. Follow me.”
For most people I know this gift of grace if received and remembered was carried out in mind, body, soul and spirit each and every day would be a game changer for their lives. It would be for mine.
Welcome to a journey of receiving grace this Christmastide. And, an invitation to embody and carry forward into the world the gift of grace in every season to come- Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Eastertide, Pentecost, the season of Pentecost. If you haven’t already, please join my mailing list so you can receive nuggets, podcast episodes, meditations and information about classes and retreats to ground, center and empower you to embody and carry forward the gift of grace in your life and share the gift with others. Looking forward to embodying, carrying, and sharing grace with you through the seasons.
Blessings on your Christmas Day and Christmastide,
Caroline