A Word from Laura: Strange New Things

            I’ve associated many things with Christmas in the past, but rarely have I focused on the chaos. These are chaotic times: an unprecedented (for us, at least) pandemic, racial reckoning, political division, economic hardship and uncertainty.

            The Christmas story invites us into chaos, though. Caesar invoked chaos by trying to tax everyone in Judea. Shepherds witnessed the chaos of angels singing across the hills. Surely Mary’s heart and womb – all of her being – were filled with chaos.

            Christmas chaos is nothing new. Christmas chaos reminds us that God is still up to something, that the whole world may be pregnant with possibility. This year, we may find hope in the coming of a vaccine, or healing in virtual connections across miles and years.

            This week, I hope you’ll join us for worship on Christmas Eve and again on Sunday. Hear the ancient story, so that as we learn to recognize God in the ancient chaos, at work in the birth of Mary’s baby, we might see the whole world as getting ready to give birth to something new.

            This is not an easy Christmas. But as we embrace the chaos of Jesus’ birth and of our times, may you come to know God giving birth once again, to something strange and good and new in your life or in our world. Maybe it’s a new friendship, maybe a new way to connect with loved ones, maybe a reconnection with God or something deeper in your own life! Something new is coming.

            Giving thanks for you and for the strange new things God is doing,
            Laura