Weekly Inspiration (12/19/24)

“The mystery of Bethlehem is that God can be known in gentleness and weakness. God can be found in mangers and in stables. God chooses the mangers and stables of our lives in which to be born. God chooses the places of gentleness and weakness of our lives in which to be known.”

Br. James Koester
Society of Saint John the Evangelist

In the wilderness
by Steve Garnaas-Holmes

      In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius,
      when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea,
      and Herod was ruler of Galilee,
      and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis,
      and Lysanias ruler of Abilene,
      during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas,
      the word of God came to:
         John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.
                    —Luke 3.1-2

Luke names every locus of power,
every place where the Word of the Almighty
ought to land...
and it does not come there,
but in the wilderness, to a powerless peasant
without office or authority, a man named John.
Don't look to the mighty for the power of God.
Look to the lowly.
Grace always rises from below.
In your own heart, yes, there are your strengths,
those things you're most comfortable with,
what gets noticed and praised—
but look also to the wilderness,
among the quiet, overlooked things,
the tender places, the sorrows and wounds,
the outlier hopes and fragile dreams,
for the movement of the Spirit.
The Holy invades from the bottom up.