Tag: Joseph

Was it a dream?

I will be waiting here….
For your silence to break,
For your soul to shake,
For your love to wake!

We have been in the season of Visiting Angels and Daring Dreams. Lives were touched and directions reconsidered – this is what happens when the air is filled with angels work and a showering of God’s love. 

Joseph slept only to hear the voice of an angel saying, take Mary as your wife as you have planned She has said yes to carrying the sacred child, the son of God. She will need the strength of your shoulder and the comfort of your love. 

 So they traveled to a place they had never been before- together. There the baby was born. Maybe Joseph stood in awe as the miracle of sacred birth unfolded before him and maybe he tried to find his place as the stable filled with shepherds and wise men from another country far away. 
It was through an angel’s visit in a dream that his will was strengthed to begin this uncharted journey. 

And once again he lay to sleep in a stable, rough and bare, only to be roused by another dream, an angel’s visit. Awaken, pack quickly. King Herod has entered this day in a rage. 

He Qi – The Magi

The wise men rose from their sleep having been warned in a dream that Herod could not be trusted. They left by a different path. And then the unthinkable occurred. Hundreds of young children were killed by Herod’s command. Herod – a King in Jerusalem angered by the news of a newborn child who had come to bring peace and serve justice. 

Joseph’s life was changed forever. These angel-filled dreams guided him as he began to follow a path unlike any he could have imagined.  

We are now in our own season of Visiting Angels and Daring Dreams. We must stay alert – for the path ahead will certainly be filled with experiences unfamiliar. May we listen closely remembering that angels often appear in unexpected ways. May we pay attention to our dreams for through them our ‘souls may shake’ and ‘love awake’. 

Quote: Rumi
First Image : Jude Allen

reflections on this Christmas Eve

What an unlikely place to be on the eve of bearing God’s child!

As if they had not already gone through enough. I wonder what it was like for Joseph and Mary to prepare for this moment. It seems that trying to make any plans was futile. Mary and Joseph began with certain images of what their life would be like. After all they were raised in a close community–they were trained in the tradition of their ancestors–their life would be a mirror of their parents and grandparents. Of course we know the story. Nothing about the life that Mary and Joseph  shared would be like their close relatives.

Nestled in the midst of a town named in the prophets, they would constantly be challenged to comprehend where they belonged. Visited by angels and encouraged by dreams this family would begin with little security and carry with them a different understanding of belonging.

Belonging to a greater community and charged to raise the child who would grow to lead a new “Way”. These parents would always have to step back in the quiet and trust.

What an unlikely place to be on the eve of bearing God’s child! In a stable, far from home – alert and aware. Isn’t it true – in the most uncomfortable moment we can find the greatest strength?! When all of the familiar is torn away, the night sky is brighter and strangers become friends.

The story is told that a child was born tonight. Vulnerable and yet determined – determined to sit in the center of this fragile earth and make it home.

Come Lord Jesus, our guest to be…

(Pre)Occupied

Few have been this preoccupied with tents

since you recklessly pitched one among us.

I would have chosen something more stable,

not quite so porous and vulnerable,

safe, secure, readily significant,

and missed the whisper of evening breezes,

the restless susurration of canvas,

and that one appearing in the shadows,

light flinting off flesh in a fading sun,

fireflies dancing in the night,

rousing my longing

to step into your own

luminous darkness.

The Rev. Jay Johnson – Peculiar Faith

%d bloggers like this: