The day before the night before

God who holds the ladder for us, help us to rise above ourselves.

We are told that Santa lands on the roof and comes down the chimney.

But this is not your style.

We wait for you to come to us from a high place

When all the time you are by our sides, asking why we are looking up there.

On Christmas Eve we hear the long genealogy from Matthew’s Gospel.

Generations of names, many of them not much more than that.

The list includes four extraordinary women who broke from convention.

The whole collection is a kind of ladder

A reminder that you work within our story, little by little, rung by rung,

to create something new and surprising

Which we are more likely to discover at our feet, than through a hole above our heads.

The angel told the shepherds to head down the hill.

May we do the same and encounter your earthy love this Christmas.

Amen.

from Doorways into Hope and Joy by Michael McGirr (John Garratt)