A Short Word/Advent 2017

The world seems dark & getting darker.

Confusion & Uncertainty reign.

Arrogance & Ignorance have grabbed the wheel.

 

I understand that “religion” has been a “bad trip” for so many.

The sins of greed, abuse, ignorance & compliance, when found among those who supposedly represent Jesus, are heinous & reprehensible. Such sins seem to be “written larger” than ever these days among those who claim His Name.

 

I’ll play my cards:
This world is either charged with a Meaning & Mystery, a hallowed “something” bigger” than ourselves; a something that we, in our finitude can’t competently explain or “nomenclature,”

or it isn’t.

 

If it IS suffused with such a meaning?
Then things like Love, Compassion, Sacrifice, Birth, even Suffering & Death can lead us to a final Wholeness, a final Redemption, a final Restoration.

 

The evidences of that inexplicable Something Wild, Beautiful, & Good are what draw me back to the Christmas story year after year.
And, yes, I truly think I “see” such Wild evidences all around me:
In Creation, family, & friends; In little acts of random Kindness & Mercy.
Call them little messages, small nudges from Beyond.

 

The world? Dark. Dark & getting darker.

It’s in times such as these that Christ’s words of Forgiveness, Peace & Wholeness seem like all we have left…

But in reality?
They were all we ever needed.

 

Grace, Courage & Joy on the journey,

~ bill mallonee

 

painting by:

Gerard van Honthorst – Adoration of the Shepherds (1622)