Loving and Holy God, “in the bleak midwinter” is our sometimes expression of Christmas Christian faith. Like the hymn writer of old we impose our cultural images on the Good News to suit our tastes. You understand us, Holy God, our seriousness and our foolishness; You understand us at our most generous and our most narrow; You understand us at our best and our worst.
The world puzzles us, Holy God. It is Your creation, we are your creation. When You created You stated it was good. But some days it does feel like we are stuck in bleak midwinter, the joys of the past and hopes for tomorrow seem too far away.
We remember those whose lives are lived in the turmoil of immigration, in the desperation of poverty, in the fear of illness and treatment, in the struggles for freedom and justice, in the weariness of war, in the bleakness of despair.
We imagine You, Holy God, spinning the globe of Your creation and seeing the precious lives of Your loved ones in each nation, each with their own struggle.
We recall them to name by news accounts.
You call them to name by name.
We know them by cause or concern, by issue or policy.
You know them by name.
We strive to make them our community humanity.
But they are Your children.
If they are Your children and we are Your children then, God, help us to see clearly who and what we are to one another.
AMEN
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