all things break...

“Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.”

 L.R. Knost

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I am dismayed by the brokenness of the world

It makes my heart hurt

It makes my soul stagger

All the lies

The greed

The hate

All the children, shot, abused, and cage

All the gloating rich

All the struggling poor

I am dismayed too by children’ whose hearts don’t work right

And mothers who fear for them

I am crushed as I hear the stories of young women

Abused, diminished, profoundly wounded by

Mothers, fathers, brothers, step-fathers, significant others

It is all too much Lord

All this sin (for lack of a better word)

And then I remember a baby born

Into poverty

Into oppression

Into a world where babies died

And babies were killed

Into a world of haves and have nots

A world where the people of privilege

Oppressed and minimized those who struggled

I remember a baby

Born in the hay and the dust

Surrounded by losers

God’s statement

It is never over

All things can be mended

All people can be healed

But not with power

Not with wealth

That is the way of the Herods and the Trumps

The way of the Ryans and McConnells

And so many more (Democrat and Republican)

Nope!

This takes love

Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally given

Love was born at Christmas

Love was the flame that shone in the darkness

So it was

So it is

Only Jesus, when he comes

Is not born in a manger

He is born in the manure and grit of our own hearts

And when he is born

He changes everything

When the sacred wakes up

When our hearts wake up

Things get mended

That

That

Is the miracle of Christmas