Sacred Questions At ChristmasSample

I AM MAKING ALL THINGS NEW

Begin by taking a few breaths and paying attention to the air moving in and out of your lungs and mouth. Notice where you feel tension or discomfort in your body. To the extent you are able, try to relax, let the chair you are sitting in fully support your body, and release the tension as you breathe deeply. 

A Prayer to Open

Here I am, Lord,

in my tired, aging, hurting, wondrous body.

Open my heart to you now.

You are my High Priest who knows.

Read Scripture Passage

Reflect

The most poignant reality about being embodied is the suffering and pain our bodies must endure, whether in the bumps and bruises of growing up or in our vulnerability to external dangers, sickness and disease, aging, and death. God’s promise is to relieve those sufferings. He is making all things new, including our bodies, and there is a day coming when there will be no more pain or suffering or death.

• Imagine getting to live in your body without ever feeling pain because you are no longer at risk for being hurt. What do you imagine that being like? 
• Reflect on God’s promise that your body will be healed and whole. What would it look like to live in that truth? How might your courage be affected?
• Reflect on the reality that in and through Jesus, the embodied one, God is making all things new and will remove all possibility of pain and suffering and death. What does this truth reveal to you about God’s love? What does it reveal about Jesus’ ability to identify with you?

Respond

Jesus Christ—

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace;

the one through whom and for whom all things were made; and

the one in whom I live and move and have my being—

became flesh and made your dwelling among us. 

And nothing—neither death nor life, angels nor demons, the present nor the future; not any powers, height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation—can separate me from the love of our God, which is in you, Jesus Christ my Lord.