LETTER FROM ROGER
“Christmas letter.”
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LETTER FROM ROGER
From the writings of George Kimmich
Beach, a favorite Unitarian Universalist minister and writer
of mine:
The Christmas season’s story of
stories begins with a trip. Mary and Joseph travel from
their home in Nazareth of Galilee to Bethlehem, David’s city
in the land of Judah. It is a long and arduous journey for
a man on foot and his espoused wife, “great with child,”
riding on a donkey. She will give birth to Jesus.
Think of this trip as the journeys of
our own life. Think of what we must leave behind; think of
what we must seek. Although far from home, might we be
blessed, as Mary and Joseph were blessed? Might we become a
family of families, a people made whole and well, as they
became a Holy Family, receive the gift of a Holy Child?
God of justice and peace, you go
before us and we follow after, on adventure. We leave
behind the security of our homes and the cares of our
labors. Being unsure of the outcome, we feel a little
afraid, a little excited, a little hopeful, a little
worried. We pack up a few necessities—courage, most of
all—and go. Yours is a word of promise; Something good will
come of this, it says, but there’s no telling exactly what.
We wonder: Can I leave the security and cares of the
familiar for the sake of an unknown gift, a blessing yet to
come? Full of questions, I go. So do we all go, alone and
together.
God of Christmas, holy Spirit of this
season of hope, we leave behind all that holds us back from
your adventure, the risk of life for the sake of love. Our
travels will come to an end: the cares of home and work, of
birth and growth and death, will reclaim our days. But the
journey itself is without end. May I venture to live for
love’s new being!
Amen.
Merry Christmas!
See you in church,
Roger
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