Putting a devotional book is not something one does alone, so I owe my thanks to the following people:

The photo on the front page was taken by Naassom Azevedo and sourced from Unsplash.Com. It depicts a group of college students in Brazil.

Our writers are Marilyn Allen, Fr. Keith Axberg, Cathey Frederick, Jen McCabe, Fr. Paul Moore, Ashley Sweeney, Mary Ann Taylor, Carol Treston, and Tom Worrell.

Blessings to you this Advent, Christmas, and in 2022!
-Jen McCabe

“Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” -Isaiah 45:22 (NRSV)

Three days ago, the sun turned from its march south toward longer light and warmer days. Summer is still many months away, but we have begun the journey. On this day we celebrate the Incarnation when God showed up as one of us. The human illusion of alienation of imagining that God was Other is transcended by the realization that in this little child, God and humanity reveal a radical union of great mystery.

We worship Jesus as God because he is God, but at the same time, we remember that he is also fully, completely human. As we watch him grow and launch into his ministry the idea is inescapable that here we see what full humanity really is, what we were always meant to be; perhaps something we already are and don’t know it. If that is the case, then the incarnation doesn’t begin and end with Jesus. As the Gospel of John says, “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” (John 1:18.) In this human, God is revealed. Better yet, in this human, we come to know that God is manifest in humanity. Where we differ from Christ is not our humanity but our inhumanity, our loss of humanity, our falling beneath our calling. In Jesus we see that the fabric of existence, including our own existence, is the warp and woof of divinity beneath our inhumanity, calling us to our true selves. I write these words and I know them to be true, but I also know that I do not fully grasp their meaning. I’m overcome with awe. As Peter Mayer sings in the song, Holy Now, “…say it’s not a sacrament; I tell you that it can’t be done.”

What is saving me now is knowing that in Christ I can learn to see God everywhere, if I will but set aside for a moment who I think I am and open my eyes.

God of all peoples and all things, open our eyes to see your image in ourselves, in those around us, and that which surrounds us, that we might rightly worship your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God who enfolds us all. Amen.
-Fr. Paul Moore

“The righteousness of the upright saves them, but the treacherous are taken captive by their schemes.” -Proverbs 11:6 (NRSV)

Just before Christmas in 1986, my twin brother and I were invited over to the house of our neighbor Lou Ellyn Griffin to bake Christmas cookies. When we were done, she read us the Christmas story and kept reading from her Bible storybook all the way through the life of Jesus. Sean and I grew up having story time every night with our mom, so sitting and listening to stories wasn’t out of the ordinary for us. It was, however, when the seed of faith was planted in me. Lou Ellyn was never pushy about her faith, but she made sure I knew that God loved me and that I could come to her if I had any questions on the subject. We took care of her pets and I was her teaching her assistant with her exchange students from the age of 10 onward, so I had many chances to see her living out her faith. I took her up on discussing things as an angsty 13 year old, and I credit her as the reason for the faith I have today.

I don’t claim righteousness or uprightness for myself because those are not the things that save me. I believe that I am saved by grace through my faith in Jesus Christ and that God loved me so incredibly much that He sent Jesus to die on the Cross for me. That love, termed agape in Greek, is a divine and soul-changing love that is deeper and broader than I will ever be able to understand. All I know is that the world changed forever 2000 years ago when Christ came to earth as a baby in a manger in Bethlehem.

This amazing love saves me every day, and it has changed me for the better.

Dear Lord, thank you for sending your Son to earth because You loved us so incredibly much that You did not want us to be separated from You at death. This love is incomprehensible, and I will never be able to understand it, but I thank You for it nevertheless. Amen.
-Jen McCabe