We had a White Christmas in North East Pennsylvania this week. Here is Garden-Mary at dawn on Christmas Day. She has a snow cap, snow scarf, snow mantle, snow belt - even snow-filled hands.
I like the holiday song White Christmas because it invites imagining and pondering: "I'm dreaming," it begins. But the song's dreaming is limited: Christmas cards, glistening trees, past years, children listening for sleigh bells.
I'm thinking that the White Christmas Mary of the garden here might invite us to more than that. We might dream and ask heaven to cover (like snow) the world where we fail each other - where people, especially children, are in desperate need of heaven's help. Of course the real help we need is the changing of hearts, from top to bottom.
I'm thinking that the White Christmas Mary of the garden here might invite us to more than that. We might dream and ask heaven to cover (like snow) the world where we fail each other - where people, especially children, are in desperate need of heaven's help. Of course the real help we need is the changing of hearts, from top to bottom.
cover the children waiting to be born,
the ones who are lost,
enslaved,
orphaned,
withering from hunger and thirst,
any who are not in school.
Snow Covered Mary,
shelter the refugee - hoping,
the miserable,
the exhausted,
the war-damaged,
the wanderer.
Snow Mantled Mary.
shield the exploitable,
the trafficked ones,
the terrorized,
the rejected,
the tear-streaming world.
Open handed Mary,
hide the child - friendless,
not held,
smiled upon,
delighted in,
played with,
sung to,
read to
or rocked.
Snow-dawned Mary,
gift me with kindness,
a courteous, gentle spirit,
more patience with people than I have,
surrender and acceptance,
and that kind of happiness
you surely felt the
night of angel-song
and shepherd-visit.
Amen!
