Conspiracy of Love
December 25, 2023
“No other God have I but thee, born in a manger, died on a tree.” — Martin Luther
There is a great deal of toxic conversation in our world today, words devoid of love; quips and snippets absent of grace; toxic thoughts and corrosive undercurrents. But the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, and the Word, which was from the beginning, life giving and full of grace and truth, has been made flesh and dwelt among us and we have beheld His glory.
The burden of light and love in a dark and loveless place is great, but it is ours to carry and ours to be born anew each day in our hearts. A blessed Christmas with a gentle and heavy-hearted prayer. Let us be people of Word and truth, of light and love, and of grace and peace as we follow the Prince of Peace. Amen
Wrapped in vulnerability,
Love descended …
exposed to the elements …
exposed to threat
and danger …
exposed,
vulnerable,
human …
Love:
Incarnate …
invisible divinity and
visible humanity.
Love …
an open target …
a viable opportunity
to align or malign and yet
Alive!
Very Alive!
Present with us,
Among us,
One of us,
Like us …
in all our infirmity …
every temptation,
every disease,
every emotion,
every pain and passion,
poured upon Love!
Welcome, Jesus!
Welcome, Spirit!
Welcome, Presence and Power of God,
Emptied and embodied in
a body.
We are your body now.
All that you were among us,
We are called to be.
Let us be who you were and let us
give as you gave and let us
speak as you spoke and let us
love as you loved.
You, who are the Prince of Peace have made us …
Peacemakers and called us …
Blessed.
And we are …
Blessed.
Welcome, Lord Jesus.
Welcome to our hearts and lives and
World.
Joy to the World!
The Lord has come.
Let earth receive her King!
To Marvel
“And Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him.” — Luke 2:33
God isn’t calling know-it-alls to play a significant role in His program.
He is not looking for those whose motto is, “Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.”
God is calling men and women who are capable of marveling over that which is marvelous.
“Business and usual” is not in His order of the day. He is full of surprises. The mundane is not His domain; He shakes things up.
When God speaks directly through His prophets to us, His Word goes straight to the heart with recognizable veracity and piercing honesty. We are amazed.
Joseph was a man capable of relishing the marvels of God. He was not jaded by boredom or dulled by cynicism. Joseph was caught completely off guard by the wonder of God’s power and He basked in it.
To marvel at the spoken word means that we have truly received it — deeply and with a willingness to let it shape us. We have rejected the superficial responses that tend to dismiss the unusual as a something merely strange and we have chosen to let God speak.
It is no small thing to receive such a word.
It is no small thing what God wants to do in us, through us, and within proximity of our lives.
When God sends a Simeon or an Anna into our lives, He has a reason. While no human being is capable of a consistently infallible representation of divine will, God is able to speak through the frailest, most errant person to say what we need to hear.
And while we are not witnessing the creation of new scriptures in our time, the Lord is still taking His scriptures and placing them on the lips of men and women He chooses to apply them to our lives in ways that cause us to marvel.
Don’t stop marveling; we serve a marvelous God.