Day 102
Sunday, December 11, 2022

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Scripture
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.  —John 1:14

Wisdom
The carpenter from Nazareth knew long workdays, sweaty lunch breaks, lazy coworkers, small paychecks…delicious dinners, restful sleep, the warmth of family, healing touch. The incarnation means there is nothing secular anymore. No place to hide from God. No part of life that God-in-Christ is not intimately familiar with in human form. We miss this all the time, like most people missed the lowly birth of God into this world. It would have been easy to go on about your census business in Bethlehem the next day, unchanged. Even for the wise travelers who recognized something had happened, did they know what to do with it those 30 years the baby took to grow up and take on his ministry? It’s too easy to hold our breath through “the weeks leading up to,” through shopping lists, long workdays, countdown to vacation, advance baking—as if all of that doesn’t hold the potential for incarnated holiness, too.  —Deborah Lewis, Christian Century, November 22, 2015, Beginnings. Advent.

Prayer
On our own long work days, too-short lunch breaks, and restless nights, help us to notice your incarnation: do not leave us unchanged by your grace and truth that dwells now within us. Amen. —The Reverend Dr. Katie Snipes Lancaster