Noel

God is love.

Love is God.

Love is less

an emotion

than it is a life force,

a vitality,

a spirit,

a vigor,

an energy.

On Christmas

Love became Flesh.

Love

contracted,

labored,

dilated,

pushed,

and finally

came squalling

into a

primitive,

makeshift,

inhospitable,

outbuilding.

But

location,

location,

location,

meant nothing.

Once born,

His parents

might as well

have been

in Herod’s palace,

surrounded by

midwives and

musicians on lyres

and cymbals.

Their joy

at meeting their

miracle child

face

to

face

could not be contained.

And this child!

Born into a family

of acceptance,

and

vision,

could not have found

a better home.

Like a seed

planted in

dark, fertile soil,

Love took root.

Love was never

something we

could grasp

in an instant.

Love was something

to lean into,

to grow with

to struggle with.

And, over time,

perhaps

to catch glimpses

of understanding it.

Love needed

no grandeur

or fanfare.

Love arrived

in the world

stealthily,

on tiptoe.

and changed everything.

The Child would spend

His lifetime teaching

that what we needed,

we had

already

been

given.

God is Love.

Love is God.