Resilient, adaptable, hope-filled and deeply yearning, is how I best describe the disciples of Rupert’s Land engaged in mission and ministry. Indeed, this is what I saw when I went looking for a “child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger”. God continues birthing again the Body of Christ limitlessly, lovingly, gracefully, and occasionally with protest. Birth pangs signal the intense hope of God’s home among us beginning and completing again. Our honour is to live that rebirthing with-in the revealing presence of God in all of creation.
You are blessing of comfort in a milieu of dis-ease. You are a familiar voice in a cacophony of distraction. You are shelter amidst the storm of distress. You are a vital story that God is telling during a global wilderness wandering. You have been, for me, a sign that God is again making all things new.
Let us listen and look for God’s incarnation in the ordinary and extraordinary, in the expected and in surprises, and in the unfamiliar and familiar. There is a stable somewhere near you which requires your hope and gifts. After our visit to the stable let us be prepared to share our stories with the world and one another to build upon the faith that is within us.
May this year’s Nativity be for us a prophetic nudging, a disruptive call, and a re-kindling of relationships. May God bless you, and all whom you love.
Yours in the peace of Christ,
