Tag Archive: Family

To my UBC family: gather with

To gather with 
friends and family
is easy for some
but for others of us 
it is the most difficult 
calling of holidays.

Reconnecting is 
pregnant with 
surprises.
While apart from 
one another 
we have all been
changing.

But our minds 
and hearts 
trick us
and usually 
we have frozen
each other,

entombing the other 
in the expectations,
beliefs,
habits,
and patterns
of old.

To gather with
is to come
face to face 
with conflict
and to face our 
own desperate
desire to be
understood
and cherished.

To gather with
is to allow
for the possibility 
of change
and the possibility
of not that much
change.

To gather with
in Holy Days
is to rely 
on His love
to cast out our fear.

Oh Jesus you came
and gathered with us
full of truth and grace.
Help us 
gather 
with.

John 1:14, NIV
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

1 John 4:13-21, NIV
13This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 

17This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

19We love because he first loved us. 20Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.