A Christmas Prayer

 

Thank you God, for gathering us together on this night Of feasting and celebration. Tonight the heavens proclaim that we are not alone, We are nevermore alone. You are always with us. This night is a threshold, It’s the night you came out of eternity and into time. Out of heaven and into this fragile world. We have built so many things onto the doorway of Christmas. We’ve made it a triumphal arch With blinking lights and billboards, And we charge an entrance fee. But the doorway you use to the world Is not ornate. The womb of a teenage girl; the love afforded by a poor family. Your doorway to the world is still found in our body Our hearts; our flesh. You knock. We open. You live in us, through us. Thank you, Christ, that you come to us in rags, not silk. You don’t respect the ways of the world— Wealth is not power; might is not right. Your way is altogether different: The last is first, blessed are the meek and the merciful, When someone compels us to go one mile, We go the second mile with grace. We are lovers of enemies; Servants of all. In your way, we are free. In you, we can go anywhere in life with confidence. You go there before us, making a path, Even through the gates of death to the life beyond. God, make peace prevail among the nations of the earth. Make peace on the landscape of our hearts. Bless us with loving eyes and forgiving hearts— that we may look upon our own lives with generous acceptance, and forgive those people who have hurt us the most. Bless us with hope—that in spite of what we see with our eyes, All of the death, hurt, anger, injustice, That none of this will finally stand. Your love is the most powerful thing in all creation, And nothing will stop you From wiping away every tear, righting every wrong, and reconciling us to each other. Thank you God, for gathering us together on this great night Of feasting and celebration. Amid the cacophony of the season, The music and the laughter and the tears, There is a quiet, insistent knock On the door of our hearts. Tonight, we say, “come in.” “Jesus Christ, beloved Child of God, come in.”