“…love was our Lord’s meaning.” – Julian of Norwich
You’ve heard it before, I’ll wager. That this celebration, this day of days is a result of love. Love is what drove the Creator of stars, nebulae, and cats to dare the dangers of this world. A desire to draw us into a deeper relationship, to show us what it could be, can be like—presenting to us a new Way—has behind it love.
And such love. God entered into this world as one of us not for power or wealth. There was no desire to reign or rule, no temptation to deception in order to gain prestige and be set up in the high places of this world. None of this, other than to satisfy the ache for a deeper relationship, was for Jesus’ own gain. It was outward, directed to kings and shepherds, educated and ignorant, famous and forgotten.
Yet, as amazing as this is, it tells us something even more wondrous.
This driving force that brought the Divine into human form, this power that made it possible for the immortal to take on mortality is within each of us. The very same source from which the miracle of the Incarnation sprang flows within us and through us this day.
Can we wield it as Jesus did? Are we able to tap it to heal this sick with the touch of our hand? With it on our lips, can we calm the wild winds, still the storm? Perhaps. But if you’re like me, you’ve barely begun to learn to wield this force. If I am honest, more times than not, I’m tapping the small strength of my being rather than that of love, too concerned with my own thoughts and troubles and frustrations.
But what if we dared learn to embrace love as Jesus did and does to this day? Might we find solid ground beneath our soles even atop the rough ocean waves? Could we speak in ways that shame the proud and transform those willing to hear?
In love, daring its full, wild wind, could we begin to transform the world from the depths of a winter night?
Beloved One, come near to us today, teach us hope, teach us peace, and teach us to love so we might wake to the day when all things are made new.