BE BORN IN US TODAY!

Advent Season reminds us, in the journey of faith, we are a lot like Mary and Joseph; pregnant with new life inside us, traveling toward Bethlehem—toward birth.

Like them, we are actively walking, making choices on the road we decided to take—we’ve chosen to join a church, to live together in faith and trust, to have a baby!

We recognize the freedom of our choices and our partnership with God in co-creation, remembering “It is he that hath made us and not we ourselves.” We are partners in grace, captive to a power beyond our control.

God has chosen us! God has announced to us what is being borne by us and in us. Faith is moving and stretching within us! Grace is filling us with a Spirit that is new life!

On our journey of faith (as on the trip to Bethlehem), we must patiently wait “until the hour has come,” or “for the fullness of time.” Like a seed, our faith germinates in the dark and the warmth of the womb.

And then comes the labor of birth! There’s a crisis of faith, the movement into new life, the birth and rebirth of ourselves as children and the family of God. This birth can include difficulty and pain. We can feel very alone and become discouraged. We might cry out a bit like a woman who is in labor and childbirth.

As we enter the new year, let us trust and hope in the new creation God is birthing in and through us! Like Paul, we can say about ourselves and our beloved church, “…I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).

From my family to yours:

Have a wonderful New Years’ celebration!

Duff

PS—Good riddance to 2020!