… watching for the brushstrokes of God
As the sun is setting on this year, what a tumultuous year it has been. What trauma are you carrying with you? is your favorite memory? What would you like to have done differently? What is your favorite memory? For what are you grateful?
How has this year shaped you?
So many times life requires a response from us. Sometimes we can only react while at other times we have time or space to chose our response.
What is the distance between reaction and response? What factors open up that space?
You have been pulled into the fierce winds
Carrying you over the barren hills
Leaving you bruised
On the shores of this rocky coast.
…
Come falling
On your knees
On this bed of sand
Where the stones have washed away
And the softened earth awaits,
Take all the time you need
To be undone
And breathe ~ Morgan Harper Nichols
What softened space gives you breath?
When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flocks,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among people,
To make music in the heart.
~ Howard Thurman
What is your first step?
I will light candles this Christmas,
Candles of joy despite all the sadness,
Candles of hope where despair keeps watch,
Candles of courage for fears ever present,
Candles of peace for tempest-tossed days,
Candles of grace to ease heavy burdens,
Candles of love to inspire all my living,
Candles that will burn all year long. ~Howard Thurman
What candle will you light?
How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given!
O come to us, abide with us…
How do you receive Immanuel ~ God with us?
With the Eyes of the Heart 