THE TWELFTH WAY: RETURN

 The mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.                                                                                           Colossians 1:26-27   

…they returned to their country by another route.
Matthew 2:12                                                                        

This, at last, is the mystery of Christmas, the heart of the journey. God became human that humanity may enjoy intimate fellowship with God – always. God in Christ and Christ in us, the full presence of God making a home in the human heart. This is more than the mind can take in. It is beyond reason and defies explanation. Only love can carry you to this inner place of prayer, this being-with-God that you were created for. Most of the time we live in a distant country, far from God and even far from our own selves, not present to the Presence.

This long journey to Bethlehem ends in realising that what you sought was not far away at all but as close as your own heartbeat. Multiple things took up your attention instead of the one thing that truly mattered. But now you have learnt to be present this is the essence of prayer.

So you don’t need to stay on this mountain. Go back to emails and grocery shopping, working and resting.  But now you can take another way (Matt 2:12). Be fully present; don’t resist the moment, even if it seems awful.  It seems awful largely because you want to be elsewhere – but God is there, not somewhere else. When you’re present, you are no longer haunted by the past or anxious about the future.  You dwell with God, Who is as close as your hands and feet, as near as your next breath.

Lord, now I know that the journey is within,

through a vast interior landscape that I have largely ignored.

You wait like a visitor in my heart

while I am a distracted host, busy with many things,

but not present to the One my heart truly desires.

I will learn to be present to my daily world,

present to Your love

That the two may mingle and intertwine

That Your glory may be seen in all the earth.