What Is Coming to Birth for You This Christmas?

Throughout this Advent season, I have been listening closely to the birthing dreams presented by many of the prophets in the daily readings.  Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, and others dream of a new creation, a new way of being human.  In their dreams, rivers flow with justice, war is replaced with a massive effort to find food for the whole world, and archenemies, like the lion and the lamb, become friends. 

So, I started looking for birthing signs around me.  Here is what I saw:

·      A gay couple feels totally at home and accepted in a convent of “elderly” nuns;

·      A high school basketball team shows good sportsmanship despite a jeering crowd;

·      Two long-time friends continue to work at their relationship by overcoming differences;

·      A prisoner of Apartheid becomes President and teaches the whole world about reconciliation;

·      A couple finds new paths to begin the long journey out of some old ruts.

This is Christmas.  It is the birth of peace, justice, love, hope, and joy in the midst of some seemingly impossible situations.  God is born anew in us.

What about you?  Where are finding Christ born anew in our world? 

Peggy Ryan, OP

Whitefish Bay, WI