The Rev. Canon Anne E. Kitch
Canon for Ministry Formation and Transitions
God takes up the weak out of the dust
and lifts the poor from the ashes.
Psalm 113:6
“Are you ready for Christmas?” Everyone seems to be asking.
“I don’t know why people ask that, no one is ready,” my husband points out.
And it is true. People have lists of what is not prepared. Presents that are yet to be wrapped. Shopping not finished. Baking still to be done. Seasonal rituals particular to each household that must be in place but are not quite.
And there are those who are unprepared in a whole other way. Whose hearts are weighed down by grief. Whose lives are battered by need. Whose perception of the holy is dulled by despair.
In my own way I have found I have had to let go, and to let go, and to let go again. Of expectations. Of particular plans. Of rehearsed routes. And in the letting go I have discovered both holy space and places in my soul that need the cleansing light of Christ.
The Savior of the world is just that—savior of the world. No one, no place, no time exists beyond the reach of Christ’s light and love. Not even the unprepared. And especially, Jesus comes enfleshed in the vulnerability of a newborn to embrace the weak, the poor, and the lost. No one will be left behind.