Evolving

Evolving is never easy

It stretches everything

Especially your faith

What does it feel like

To shed your skin

To walk for the first time and fall

How does the bird feel 

The first time she takes flight

Evolving is never easy

Light shows up

Light shows up 

In the most unexpected places

In a daughter 

Binding up a mother's wound

In a child

Singing carols with passion

In laughter shared

Among cousins

In a simple gift

From child to parent

In the return of the king

In total darkness

Yes, light shows up

In the most unexpected places

Restoration

"When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion

We were like those who dream"

What has the Lord restored 

In your life?

What broken pieces

Has he mended back together

What new insights and wisdom 

Has he gifted you with

The great promise of God

Is restoration

Renewal

Redemption

Of Creation

Of the Cosmos

And one of the miracles

Is that it comes

Through a helpless infant

Born in Bethlehem

One that must be held 

And fed and bathed

What a wonderfully strange way

To save the world!

What a bizarre way 

To show the vulnerability

Of the Lover of our souls

And this is how restoration comes

Come, Lord Jesus, Come

Light

What a shock! 

the neighborhood

seemed dark lately

 . . . really dark

what with all the violence,

arguing, injustice, disorder,

it’s not that

nothing good ever happened

it’s just that the dark

seemed to overshadow

the light

but sometimes I wonder

is the dark necessary?

not that violence, arguing, injustice, and disorder

are good

but do they make up the canvass that

peace, unity, justice, and order

must be painted upon?

you see, I can’t know the first things

except by faith

when I was born, my first sound was a cry

crying to enter this grey world

leaving the dark comfort of the womb

close to my mother’s heart

you see, dark is not always bad

one of the loneliest places on earth

is the never ending fluorescent universe

of a big box store

never changing,

never dimming,

24/7

never dark

always light,

but filled with a superficial light

a light that pales and blinds

a light that doesn’t hold a candle

to the Real Light

And that Light

Shines in the darkness and

the darkness couldn’t put it out

not now, not ever

not a washed out fluorescent light

but a warm, piercing, glow

from the inside out

maybe that Light

shines brighter in the dark?

I want that kind of light

to shine in me,

O Christ! 

come once again and shine!