The Birth of God Is Our Future
The Feast of Christmas holds a mystical quality – it stands as a Kairos moment, a divine interruption in our hurried world. In this sacred pause, we’re called to still ourselves and listen deeply to the whispers of the human heart.
My recent visit to a Berber village in Morocco brought the Nativity scene into vivid focus. Sitting within a Berber tent, I imagined the holy family on that cold night: Jesus born in similar humble surroundings, the brilliant star piercing the darkness, three wise men approaching on their stately camels from eastern lands. The scene unfolds with profound simplicity – a manger cushioned with hay, Mary in her youth, Joseph in his wisdom, shepherds from nearby fields, and gentle beasts gathering under the vast night sky. All of creation illuminated by the silent Word of God manifesting in our midst.
Christmas resembles the Big Bang of divine Love – an unstoppable force of energy expanding through space and time. God emerges as the unfathomable mystery of love, beyond love itself—the love beyond love. God is love’s flame, love’s weaver, the love beyond all loving. When love seems absent, God springs forth anew. Christmas marks this divine love’s emergence in our shadowed world. Every conflict, act of violence, and instance of human suffering speaks to an unborn God yearning to be loved, for love finds its completion only when received and returned in love.
Do we truly embrace this divine love’s transformative power? Our hearts yearn for belief, for love’s alchemical touch. Christmas offers a moment to lower our defensive walls. Children do this naturally, with joy, while adults often construct protective layers, guarding their convictions and viewpoints. The root of human struggle lies in our divided hearts and competing affections. As we cocoon ourselves within the ego’s thick shelter, we lose sight of life’s boundless possibilities.
Christmas beckons us to unveil our hearts, to embrace renewal. We’re invited to set aside our rational frameworks and experience our full humanity: the gentle touch, the warming smile, the heartfelt embrace, compassion’s tender care. We’re called to sense Earth’s yearning for love – the trembling trees, thirsty grasslands, birds seeking sanctuary in their nested communities. All creation voices its need for love.
This Christmas season invites us to move beyond logical analysis to heart-centered wisdom, reclaiming the soul as love’s vital center. Ideas prove transient, but love draws forth new life. We serve as midwives to the future, to an unfolding world. God represents the future’s potential, life’s infinite capacity for growth. Everything needed to create a world of justice, peace, dignity, shared abundance, and planetary harmony already exists within us. The cosmos of tomorrow lies in our hands. God is life itself. Christmas reminds us that God has come so we might experience life in its fullness.
The ritual of Christmas gift exchange carries deeper meaning – it teaches us to receive openly, express gratitude, and extend generosity to others. Across every culture, language, and corner of our world, the universal human longing remains constant: to give and receive love. In places where love seems absent, the act of offering love creates the very thing it seeks, revealing love as the fundamental truth of our existence.
To fully embrace love requires radical surrender – loosening our grip on control and allowing love to flow without restriction or condition. This surrender represents love’s narrow gateway, one that demands we accept vulnerability, bear suffering, and die to the isolated self. Though this path may feel desolate and lifeless at times, staying faithful to love ultimately leads us to profound freedom. As Jesus proclaimed: “If you make my Word your home, you will learn the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Jn 8:31-2). How do we learn the truth in a world of deception? By learning to love ourselves as we are, rather than striving to be what we are not. God loves as we are, not for what we are. In this truth is our freedom, and in freedom is our capacity to be born anew.
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Thank you, Ilia, for the spiritual nourishment your writing supplies. As time continues to tick, God’s love for us remains ever present, ever abundant, and ever available. I am thankful for the community that gathers here to celebrate the fullness of life that invites our participation.
The Little Prince of St.-Exupery loved a rose with thorns, felt repelled, and learned from a fox that it is necessary to approach a beloved tentatively. Ilia and many Christians tell us God loves us first, so responding in any positive way is fine with God, so there is no reason to fear or hesitate. Matthew Fox and others remind us we have been *originally* blessed by a God who is compassionate with our limitations; and Jesus taught us to forgive countless times, for this is God’s disposition. Richar Rohr writes that we learn better by doing than we do by studying wise writers. Yes! to all these gifts of love.
Now every time I see suffering I can think, “There is our unborn God, wanting to give and receive love.” Divine Love suffering in our midst. I knew God was present everywhere but this is a new twist. Thank you.
Adding my Thank You, Ilia.
The simplicity of the message of the Incarnation leads us its challenge. May we respond to Grace with the wisdom derived from stillness.
Jane Reina
What else to say but thank you for so beautifully opening the heart to the gift of love that swims in and around and between us, whose very presence is as near as our breath. Thank you too to all here who so uniquely and open-heartedly share in this community
At a loss for words. Though there are periods of unconditional love for self and others, there are other periods of judgement and fretting. Having trouble keeping the Way. Is that not human?
Inspiring reflection, Ilia. Christ said “love one another”. This means “love the other as they are, not as we wish they were.” A loving God does the same, as manifest in Christ. The words in the biblical text do not quite capture the joy that this love from Christ left in the hearts of those he touched and continues to touch through the Spirit that lives in every heart. “God looked upon creation and saw that it was good.” He sees that same goodness today, notwithstanding war and manifest injustice. God observes with joy, waiting for evolution to work its maturity.
Wow so amazing I’ve been wondering how do I love myself ? While your reflection does help me understand loving myself means complete acceptance of who I am with all that means, most importantly this reflection shows me that knowledge of truth comes as a result of loving myself thus the absolute importance of loving myself.
Thank you
Christmas is often such a time of nostalgia. Memories surface which lie hidden in our hearts. However I love ❤️ the thrust of your insight which invites us to continue to move forward – allowing the birthing of the Divine one to continue its unfolding. Much to ponder as we continue to awaken to the wonder of our incarnate God. Thank you for the deep spiritual nourishment your writings offer us and our world.