Advent: the season of preparation
(and anxious detail and obligation),
which leads me to pray: I need release.
I need freedom and unburdening,
like eagle’s wings.
O God,
as you skip across the heavens
on your way toward
birth,
lighten my slow steps
and strip the heavy lead from my heart
so that I can
REJOICE,
oh! just sweetly rejoice.
I know, crucified Emmanuel, that
carefree bliss and fullness of joy
are not the same:
surely there was joy in your Word-Made-Flesh lifetime,
but there was nothing carefree about cramming all that
divinity
into a body.
So when my earth-bound joy cannot dance
(because this ego forgets that carefree is not the point),
may HOLY JOY save me
by grace,
by the God of gods
who is not finished
and is not encumbered;
and my song will be lifted up
even if my feet are not:
“Glory to God in the highest.
Glory and joy!”
(and anxious detail and obligation),
which leads me to pray: I need release.
I need freedom and unburdening,
like eagle’s wings.
O God,
as you skip across the heavens
on your way toward
birth,
lighten my slow steps
and strip the heavy lead from my heart
so that I can
REJOICE,
oh! just sweetly rejoice.
I know, crucified Emmanuel, that
carefree bliss and fullness of joy
are not the same:
surely there was joy in your Word-Made-Flesh lifetime,
but there was nothing carefree about cramming all that
divinity
into a body.
So when my earth-bound joy cannot dance
(because this ego forgets that carefree is not the point),
may HOLY JOY save me
by grace,
by the God of gods
who is not finished
and is not encumbered;
and my song will be lifted up
even if my feet are not:
“Glory to God in the highest.
Glory and joy!”