Dearly Beloved,
One week from today is Christmas.
I don't know about you, but I still have quite the to-do list: cards to send, gifts to wrap, stockings to stuff, thank you to write.
And yet, today, I have been thinking about how I can be present in this moment. How I can be paying attention for God's in-breaking right now. How I can pause, breathe, notice, wonder, love, and rejoice. Not because everything is done. Not because everything is as it *should* be. Not because peace prevails and all mourning has ceased. But because, even as we wait for Christ's birth, for Emmanuel God with us, we also know that Christ is already here. Emmanuel has come.
This already-not-yet paradox is hard to live in. It defies the binary ideas we have about the world -- light OR dark, good OR bad, with us OR against us, already OR not yet. But paradox is the gift of our faith -- that even as we wait for Jesus' birth, Christ is already here. Even as we turn to God for comfort or in thanksgiving, God is awaiting us. We are already beloved. We already belong. We are already named and claimed and embraced. All of who we are, not just the *good* parts, not just the *acceptable* bits, but the fears and the worries and the wounds -- you know, the ones that lead us down spirals of insecurity, shame, and emotional melt-downs. God loves the whole of us.
Perhaps you've had that moment of thinking: "Well if people really knew who and how I am...." God DOES already know that. And God embraces all of you. God loves all of you. It is not only whoever you are and wherever you are on life's journey it is also: ALL of who you are is a beloved child of God and welcome here.
What does it mean to belong to God and to each other in the midst of our own shortcomings, in the face of our disagreements, in the context of decisions that don't sit right, or wildly divergent perspectives on an incoming administration? What does it mean to belong to God and to each other as our City Council kicks the can down the road to discuss the possibility of a 24/7 Resource Center for our most vulnerable neighbors -- the ones who are already here? The ones who have lived in Loveland their whole lives? And the ones who have just arrived? What does it mean to belong to God and to each other when past hurts have broken relationships, estranged family members, and separated us one from another?
I think one of the things it means to belong to God and to each other is listening deeply and reminding one another through word and action that each of us matters, that each of you matter. We are stronger together, the tapestry of God's beloved community more beautiful, God revealed more fully in our diversity and even our disagreements.
One week out from Christmas, I hope you can pause. I hope you can know your belovedness, your belonging to God and to this community of faith. And I hope that you can take the time to remind the people around you of how they matter to you, of what they mean to you, of how your belovedness and belonging is wrapped up in theirs. Perhaps this, after all, is more important than all of the other things on my to-do list. Perhaps this, after all, is how to prepare for Christmas
Ubuntu: I am because you are. I belong because we belong together. Let us await Emmanuel God with us with great anticipation in our hearts and minds, our bodies and spirits even as we open ourselves to all of the ways that Christ is with us (and within us) already.
In hope and deep and abiding love,
Thandiwe
