This night

Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy (Luke 2:10)

All creation sings with joy this night, for heaven and earth are joined as one, never to part. 

The heart of God is unveiled in a human heart. God’s everlasting desire appears in a Bethlehem stable.

Eternal light overflows heaven and spills into our darkness as God comes to us in the Christ child, who is this world’s light. He comes to embrace the lost, beckoning us to our true home that we may bask in everlasting kindness.

For the One who comes has loved us since before the birth of time, delighting in the moment we first drew breath, seeking us every moment since.

Shepherds were the first to come his side. I like to think they are the first church of those who love him. I imagine myself kneeling there beside them, leaning close to see him. And why not?

For I belong to this long line of anxious, confused, needy, hopeful souls that extends through the centuries to this night when we gaze at his beauty once more, finally home.

David L. Miller

What we see

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all. (Titus 2:11)

I’ve always wanted to celebrate Christmas in a barn amid the mingled scent of Holsteins, manure and hay fragrant with red clover.

I see it. A half dozen cows, ready to be milked, shift their weight in the worn wooden stanchions. A mouse rustles among bales in the mow. A fly-specked light bulb casts a dusty glow, as in the barn I remember from my earliest days. 

In the back, beyond the cows, sits a manger on the old board floor, beside a couple, exhausted, as an infant lies in the straw.

This is what we see when the glory of God takes on mortal flesh. The Loving Mystery, who made the stars, lies there for our adoration. Christ appears, a helpless infant, humbly wrapped by peasant parents in a place far from the halls of power and influence. For those places have no room for him.

But here, in the tender simplicity of a sleeping infant, we meet the Love who hungers to commune, heart-to heart, with us, and transform us into Love’s own image.

David L. Miller

Swept up in joy

 O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. (Psalm 96:1)

A cold, winter wind shivers the line of trees outside my window, driving autumn’s last leaves down the street. But safe inside, children sing Christmas into my soul from the stereo, their song a sacrament of the Love no winter can chill.

Gloria in excelsis Deo, their voices dance weightless in the air, echoing the angels’ song, Glory to God in the highest. And though I will never be able to create such exquisite beauty, my earth-bound heart takes flight and joins the song of creation, praising the Love who comes to our lowest places, wraps us in a mantle of mercy and carries us home.

For Christ descends into the pains and losses that still our gladness to lift us from desolation into the delight of Love’s holy presence.

The Holy One created us to know the joy that wafts around, above and within me as children’s voices sing the truth we most need. Love comes. Love comes to sweep our hearts into joy, no matter how cold the winds blow.

David L. Miller

The hope of our longing

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:7b)

The sights and sounds of this blessed season stir a primal longing for grace and peace within us. Try as it might, the world’s doubt and cynicism cannot kill the hope of our longing.

We hunger for grace, for an impossible and improbable love freely given, poured out, charming our hearts, igniting joy.

And grace comes. It comes in sunlight piercing the gloom of a winter day, playing across my desk, dispersing the clouds that shadow the heart. It awakens tears as I hug my grandsons, startled by the awareness that the love I feel is God’s love flowing through me, holding us fast, pulling us close so that we are one with this great and improbable Love.

This is the hope of our longing and the illumination of our understanding. For such moments of oneness reveal the mystery of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the unity of transcendent, everlasting love and mortal life, whose grace draws us into the heart of God and satisfies our longing.

David L. Miller