FROM BETH STEELE, A PAX TL1 & SF CERTIFICATE GRADUATE

This post is part of our four-part Advent series in 2022 on the themes of Hope, Peace, Joy & Love moving through the first 2 chapters of the Gospel of Luke. One post will be released each week through the season of Advent. We started this tradition last year & love hearing from a variety of voices in this season leading to Christmas! This 4th & final reflection is focusing on love & Luke 2:1-20.

God met me as I moved deeper into prayer & opportunities to serve & be served emerged. It caused me to reflect on what it means to love & be loved by God, how it is made real in our daily lives—the Word made flesh & living among us & in us.

Is this love an emotion—a feeling of loving & being loved, feelings that we know from our human relationships? Is it a response of service, a recognition of gifts given & a desire to give. Is it a connection with others & with God that deepens both as we draw near to the people in our lives & as we spend time with the Creator? Is it a command—love the Lord your God & love others as yourself? Is it the most audacious & unbelievable mystery in the world—to be loved & known by the Creator of the Universe—one among many but one seen & recognized, God with us? Yes, Yes, & Yes!!!

Although the gospel account Luke 2 never mentions the word “love”, I was drawn to these images of love in the story:

• The Holy Spirit producing a human child in Mary’s womb, who was somehow also God, coming to live with real human people in our very own world. This was love enfleshed in a beautiful child & the ultimate gift to us.

• The recognition by God that the coming of Christ to earth would be accompanied by great fear on the part of the humans involved. Mary, Joseph, & the shepherds were all afraid & that fear was addressed & comfort was provided. “Fear not”, they were told. This was love that provided safety & encouragement.

• We don’t hear too much about the human support that Mary & Joseph received but we do know that shelter was provided when the inn was full & God was present as both father & child. I am sure that women in the town aided this young mother during her laboring. This was love--the presence of God & the provision of God.

• We know that Jesus was born into a family, into a village, into a spiritual community all providing love & support as he grew. This is the love Jesus learned from a young age, “ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind & strength & you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

• The shepherds, & later the wise men, who visited the child recognized the importance of Jesus’ birth & they responded with worship & gifts. This is love expressed in worship but also through the giving of gifts to one another.