Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Wednesday, December 31, 2014



Matthew 2:9-12

Having listened to what the king had to say, they set out. And suddenly the star they had seen rising went forward and halted over the place where the child was. The sight of the star filled them with delight, and going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and falling to their knees they did him homage. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. But they were give a warming in a dream not to go back to Herod, and returned to their country by a different way.

Our favorite day

The magi followed a star to the place Love was born in human flesh. This is the journey of our lifetime--a pilgrimage to the places where we know Love being born in this world … and in ourselves.

We cease to be human when we turn away from the sparkling angels’ song and ignore light of those stars that shine with the Love of the child born in a manger. 

The Light who is Christmas illumines and warms our souls so that we know the Holy One who seeks us and whose beauty lives also in us. Angel song awakened our souls and starlight guided the way to the places where we knew this Light and were filled with the Love who is from the beginning.

Then the calendar page turns, and the warmth of that Light seems to fade in winter’s cold. We return to ordinary time and the mountain top vision fades. Faith’s pilgrimage continues in the valleys where angels are harder to hear and starlight is less clear.

But like the magi we do well to return to our places by a different road. For, we have seen and felt something more alive and loving than we have ever known. And we have been more alive to the beauty we are than we could have imagined. We know the Love who is and who is also in us.

So we avoid Herod, who is the symbol of all that kills what is new and beautiful … the enemy of the Love who warmed and lifted us to imagine our lives can be lived in great love … filled with the wonder of what we have seen in the manger … and discovered in our hearts.

Our way must lead us back again and again to place where we where Love is known and awakened in our depths that Christmas may be not once upon a time … but today ... our favorite day … every day.


Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Isaiah 60:1

Arise, shine out, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

Winter’s hope

Winter descends on the earth
cold and bright; clouds scattered
across blue expanse of heaven,
little islands of hope awakening
moments and summer day memories
of gentle air and full hearts totally
convinced of the goodness of all that is
because every sight and scene is
filled with Love and Light from
unimaginable Source.

Late December sun promises
more than it can deliver, but it matters
not in this candlelight, gentle yet radiant
casting its circle of illumination on
these hands and this heart awakening
awareness and warmth within, knowledge
of the Light of Love which does not die
no matter how cold or long December days.

The Light of Lord, the Love who
abides mangers and this heart shines
more brightly on winter nights when
warmth feels far off and bears me into
the new day, each one truly new and favored
because the Light of Love arises within
and around and shines from radiant blue
of sky, from islands of cloud and
mysteriously in me, calming every corner
of my soul with knowledge only Love
can give, rising anew every morning.

Pr. David L. Miller


Monday, December 29, 2014

Monday, December 29, 2014



Matthew 2:1-2, 10-11

After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, suddenly some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east asking, 'Where is the infant king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.' The sight of the star filled them with delight, and going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and falling to their knees they did him homage. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.
Joy of the magi

Joy excites me this day. The joy of the magi awakens joy in me … and a resolution to seek joy in each season of the new year.

The joyful heart eagerly gives itself away to bless and love, to serve and worship. No external command dropped the magi to their knees. They knelt in the dirt because their hearts required it. They had come to the end of their search for the child of the star, the pearl of great price.

The deep desire of their hearts found surprising fulfillment, and the inner door of their souls opened to generously pour out treasures of heart far more valuable than the gold they carried.

Joy comes when the soul finds fulfillment, when it knows the Love from whom it came. It is then that the heart fills and pours itself out in acts of extravagant generosity. In moments of great love, the Love that lies sleeping within the soul awakens to life and must be given away … with great joy.

It has always been this way. People moved to extraordinary acts of service and giving do so to express the joy within them. They act from full hearts, joyfully pouring out the Love awakened within them

We cannot give ourselves joy, but we can seek to see … in every place and circumstance … the presence of goodness and grace … the Presence of the One who is Love … that this Love may awaken the Love that abides within.

Knowing this Love, joy fills and frees the soul to become its full beauty.

We can live with our eyes fixed on the ever-present pain and ugliness of this world, becoming discouraged and cynical. Or we can see with eyes trained to seek the Love who is present everywhere and every place. We can seek to see that our souls may live with joy, giving and celebrating the Love who lives everywhere.

The choice is always ours. One way leads to life … and makes every new year a time when joy can abound.

Pr. David L. Miller

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Sunday December 28, 2014



Matthew 2:1-2, 10-11

After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, suddenly some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east asking, 'Where is the infant king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.' The sight of the star filled them with delight, and going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and falling to their knees they did him homage. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.
No boundaries

There are no limits, no boundaries to the Love God is. There are no limits to where Love goes and no restrictions on the ways Love reaches us, the beloved.

A star beckoned the magi and called them to come and know the glory of God, Immortal Love become flesh. For me, that star was people in my childhood in whom that Love shined and led me to know the child in the manger … and to know that Holy One in the depth of my soul.

The arrival of the magi at the manger signals the presence of God working far beyond the boundaries of Israel--and speaking in ways that go far beyond words in a holy book.

The one who is Love knows no boundaries. God is not the private possession of any one people, culture or religion, something forgotten by the narrow minds and cramped hearts of those who would claim God as their own.

But this is not the way Love is. Love … this Mystery, who takes flesh in a manger, is unbound by race and culture, by time and space and doesn’t conform to our favorite or cherished ways of working.

Love goes where it wills, and time and distance cannot limit its reach or shut it out.

At least once each year, I read a book to children, The Invisible String. It is about love’s reach from the depth of the sea to the distant stars, across the world to across the boundary of death.

The message is sweet and true and filled with what our hearts need to know. There is no place love does not or cannot go; no boundary keeps it out. An invisible string connects us with our beloved, no matter how near or far.

The book is about our human experience of love, but it is truer still of the One who is Love itself. The Holy One still sends sparkling stars and shining angels to announce good news and point us to the place where we can truly know the Love who comes.

Pr. David L. Miller