Affirmation

You Are the Holiday Miracle by Gwen Matthews

As December opens up before us, we welcome in the gift of reflection. We turn toward our holiday celebrations and search for common threads of meaning.

We begin with Yule, the winter solstice, and we are invited to explore duality, cycles, and seasons, and to witness the Holly King being overcome by the Oak King. Yule reminds us that we all partake in the miracle of renewal.

Hanukkah, the festival of lights, commemorates a time of miracles when the faith of the Jewish people sustained them to reclaim their holy temple and keep the light of the menorah burning for eight days.

Christmas, the celebration of Jesus’ humble birth in a manger, offers us to revisit the miracle of birth and the desire to find saviors to heal the scars of humanity.

Here, in our church, you are just as much a holiday miracle as the turning of the earth, as persistence and dedication to a faith, as the creation of each new life. We see the love you give to others, the space you create to hold one another’s joys and sorrows, and the generosity and spirit you entrust to this community.

You are the holiday miracle. This community is one of miracle-makers.

Family Grace:

Thank you for all my loved ones who are seated around this

table.

Thank you for the food that you have provided for us this

day.

Thank you for this season when we can find JOY in the all the

blessings of this season of giving.

Amen.

~ adapted from Beth McLendon

Chalice Lighting:

In this holiday season,

throughout the year to come,

and always in our lives,

may we know we are loved;

may we share the love we have;

and may we be the love we wish to see.

~ by David Breeden