Beloved Lord,

Thank You for bringing us into another Christmas season. Thank You for Your rich faithfulness in our lives throughout the past year. Thank You for the goodness of sweet blessings, for moments of delight, and for the endurance given to journey through trials and pains of many kinds. Thank You for being with us in and through it all.

Lord, as we encounter and engage with the story of Christmas, the birth of Christ, let us see and hear in a way that moves us. May we respond to what we hear, and may we return from what we have seen, in a way that glorifies You.

The theme of holiday hustle, bustle, and travel is familiar and evident all around us. But the story of Christmas is not without its own movements. Joseph and Mary traveling to Bethlehem (Luke 2:1-7). Shepherds hurrying in from the fields to the manger (Luke 2:8-20). Magi coming from the east (Matthew 2:1-12). All go, yet, all return. The Shepherds return (Luke 2:20). Joseph and Mary go back to Nazareth (Luke 2:39). The Magi make their way to their own country (Matthew 2:12).

Lord, there is such a beautiful and stunning orchestration of Your glorious design within the movements of Christmas, a section of this divine symphony of life. Help us to be willing to change our place, change our posture, change our position so that we may be a purposeful part of what You are composing in our corners of the world. Like a conductor that directs strings, percussion, woodwinds, and brass, You are the Master who utilizes unique parts to craft a rich, harmonious blend.

Lord, this season brings many complex themes, and with it a great many emotions. Moods and tempos of our events and experiences can seem to have wider ranges to them than average days. There is excitement and anticipation, anxiety and dread. Some long to sip and savor, others just want it to be over. Joyous feelings of being together can be present right along side of feelings of loneliness and loss. We can find ourselves grateful in one moment and longing for something else the next.

Lord, help us to keep our eyes on You this season. You are the Maestro; perfectly wise in administration, interpretive decisions, and crucial aspects of timing. You know when to call parts to rise, when to draw them to soften, and when parts need a purposeful time of rest. You can take what could be clamoring noise and bring forth song that is both clearly articulate and robust in nature.

Lord, place in us a desire to be a part of the movements of this season. Help us to be willing to go in response to what we hear, changed by what we see, and return with praise pouring from our hearts and singing from our lips. Help us to pursue the positions, postures, and places that You desire us to be in as if we are reading the notes of the music before us eager to play our parts with purpose.

Lord, help us to experience the movements of Christmas as a part of a greater whole. Lord, the shepherds were in the fields tending to their flocks, and to the daily work of caring for sheep they returned. Joseph and Mary left their home a couple and returned a family with a household to manage. The magi were seeking, even they in their wealth did not stay, but went back to their own country. Their stories continue into another movement and so will our own. All were blessed by their experiences of a moved response.

So I ask, Lord, please bless each of us richly and abundantly by what we experience through our moved responses to You this Christmas. Help us to make hard journeys. Help us to temporarily leave the work we are in the middle of. Help us to follow the promptings we are given with a generous response in time and resources.

I also ask Your blessing on all the relationships in our lives and in our gatherings this Christmas. Lord, every person has a unique relationship with every other person in a group. All of those chords of connection change as people grow & develop, as circumstances shift, and as time elapses. May Your grace and forgiveness flow freely through each chord, so what resonates after this season is a song that moves us forward, not a cacophony of discord and damage that detains us.

Lord, give us faith and faithfulness to participate in the parts we are given, to follow Your timing to move and return. May our returns be filled with glorifying & praising You.

Lord, please be the provider of all that is needed this season – not just on the surface, but the deep desires of our minds, hearts, and souls. Lord, You have intimate knowledge of what those things are. So I appeal, not just to Your perfect knowledge, but to Your perfect love and compassion. May Your generosity resound robustly FOR each person by the favor You have FOR them. You are the God who is both WITH us and FOR us. May that truth move us this Christmas.

In the sacred, holy, powerful, and precious name of Jesus I pray. Amen and amen.