O God, much of Mary’s pregnancy with Jesus is about displacement – not just geographical, but familial and physical. So many things were unsure, unclear, unknown.
So much is displaced in my world these days. Some days my body displaces me. I cannot do what I’d hoped; my aging bones and muscles do not recover as they once did. My energy is exhaustible.
Some days I do not recognize the world around me. It is not always a world of love and peace but of violence and war – displacement. I remember so many who have been displaced: Native Americans who once tended this land; Africans who were shipped across the sea; Asians who toiled to build this country’s railroads.
Gracious God, open our hearts. Reveal to us our own displacement. Reveal to us the displacement of others. Prepare us to welcome Jesus, a displaced one, who turned the tables of which his mother sang, and whose welcome is unconditional for me and for all. In His name, Amen.
This message is excepted from “Welcomed” by Catherine Malotky in the December 2016 Gather magazine.
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