To enjoy Jack’s video of this prayer, please click here.
Last evening a strong cold front with blustery winds came to Texas. The shallow waters were blown out into the Gulf of Mexico leaving the canal empty behind my bay home. Even the Kingfishers, Seagulls, Brown Pelicans, and Great Herons appeared to hunker down just as I have for nine long months in the Pandemic.
This morning the clouds gave way to bright sunlight. Now the bay is sky blue. God and His Angels through Nature seem to herald that darkness is giving way to light and the birth of renewed hope.
On social media, I hear the earthly voices of our brothers and sisters crying for food. For healing human touch. For comfort. For the ability to let go of grieving for loved ones who have died. Voices pleading for what had been before the Coronavirus came to America.
As I exit Advent darkness, I recall my mom’s sweet and beautiful small ceramic hand-painted Nativity Scene. Mom died ten years ago. Even though I have no idea where it is now, I can vividly see little Baby Jesus in the manger. In the miniature manger, I still witness God’s gift of hope, love, and eternal life to me and you. I hear heavenly voices calling to me in the darkness. To step forward. To look up to the Light of Christ.
We know who was in the manger in the stable in Bethlehem. But what is in the manger of your heart because of that transformative, seemingly impossible Holy and Devine birth? In your walk of faith, how did that birth transform you? What did that birth create in the manger of your heart?
As God has said in Scripture,
1 John 4:9
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.
God, as we leave Advent darkness please help us to make room in the manger of our hearts for the Light of Christ to dwell.
God, we have brothers and sisters in Christ who have little or no food or water or a stable for shelter. Please provide for them and comfort them.
God, out of the fruit of our labors may we generously give in Your Holy Name our time and money to Your less fortunate children who now have so much more of so much less.
God, please make room in the manger of our hearts to carry the love and light of Your blessed Son to others who are desperately in need of Holy hope, healing, and sustenance. Amen.
If you like this prayer, please share.
If you want to purchase for yourself or a friend a copy of Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love or Prayerful Passages: Asking God’s Help in Reconciliation, Separation or Divorce, please click on here to go to Amazon.
Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 145-lawyer full-service firm in Houston, Dallas, and Waco, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur and Inspirational Speaker. For more information about Jack or his latest book, Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love, go to www.BendingAngel.com website.
Leave a Reply