December 24 Prayer

From our home to yours, a Christmas Eve blessing.

#Waiting in the Dark

What is it like waiting in the dark?
inside behind closed doors,
Under a cloud covered night sky,
Waiting for the splitting open of the dark
Waiting for a light to break forth.

What is it like to wait in the dark?
Crawling through a damp, cold slippery cave
Listening for a crack
Searching for just a pinhole of white to appear.

What is it like waiting in the dark?
Walking along a path grouping a small instrument that beams a way forward
One step at a time, the landscape obscured ahead and behind
It’s hard to see the whole picture now.
But wait and search for what will appear before
you as you wait.

Never lose the wonder of waiting in the dark
For as you wait a yearning for light will grow
from within the cave of your heart.

In the dark abyss grows a space to
let this blessing come.

It comes then in waiting, anticipating,
in the fear of unknowing,
in the making of a space

in the darkness to enfold you,
and overshadowing you,
without pushing it away.

This blessing
It will come suddenly as the strong offshore
wind blows against the coastal waves.

It comes gently in the ‘bleak midwinter frosty wind made moan,
snow on snow.’

It comes as a ‘silent night, a holy night, when all is calm,’
And the night grows old.

This blessing comes and calls to you as an annunciation
A greeting to awaken the dawn

The flame is inside you ready to ignite a fire so bright
To be birthed this night.

A calling for all to come and bow, on earthly stone,
where blood and straw and wood
lay
A savior,
a Lord, a humble king, a God-man
Birthed in darkness
Shrouded in humanity as one of us

Light comes and calls forth this blessing

Let us hold this moment of darkness
on this eve,
and let it linger and grow
in every breath
without grasping the air -

Let heavenly lightness fill your lungs and
grow the space inside you
To bring this blessing of
God beholding you
Beholding Him
On this dark eve
This holy, Christmas night.
DB

Amen