Jan. 4, 2023

January 4, 2023

Beloveds,

Merry 11th Day of Christmas, and Happy New Year! 

I’m not quite ready, myself, to let go of the holiday season, but I’m also starting to look ahead: How will 2023 be different from the years before? What new adventures await? What can we be and do together this year? What seeds are quietly resting underground, waiting to germinate and perhaps flower? 

In the midst of the longing for new things, or the resolute determination to enact newness in our lives, we’re really just now settling into the winter season, which can seem like nothing more than a long wait for spring. But this season has its own beauty and its own work, as articulated years ago by Howard Thurman:

When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the heart.

In the last days of the winter holidays, as we settle into winter and the newness of 2023, I hope you will cultivate in your own heart the peace and the music that will sustain you and those around you in the work ahead of us.  

Yours in the work of the season and the possibilities of a new year,

Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org