Winter Solstice - The Reawakening

The winter solstice offers us a new beginning. The darkest day is behind us. It is time to look forward. I am grateful that our celebration of Christmas comes just on the heels of the solstice, reinforcing the idea of Christ as the Light of the world, coming into our own personal darkness and shining his light on our path.

During the past few weeks, I have taken time to reflect on what is means to embrace Branch Living; how to live connected to Him, to allow His life to flow through me, and yet to be out and involved in the world. Through my reading and reflection time, I have concluded that our true purpose in life is to serve as Christ's heart and hands as He carries out His redemptive work in our world. We need to allow Him to redeem us and to lead us into those areas where we can use our gifts and talents to help Him restore the world.

This is true branch living. Reinforcing our graft to Him, allowing His life blood to flow through us without hindrance and blockage, reaching out into the world as He directs to use our talents, skills, and gifts to further His ministry.

Join me in Branch Living, as we strive to live redeemed and redeeming lives!

Dormant...

There is something both sad and beautiful about a stately home that has been abandoned. The home has a past. It held a family, children, and all the possibilities that accompany young life. It held dreams and a future. This is part of its beauty--its past. It is the contrast--the stillness, the emptiness, the seeds of decay that evoke the sadness. What once was is no longer.

Yet, if you look closely, within its current barrenness are the seeds of possibility, of new life, of repair, of a future.

I have thinking about my own life--this branch I have been given-- in this very way over the past few months. My nest is now empty. What once felt comfortable and full now feels quiet, dormant, and unfamiliar. Yet, within this stillness, I feel the faint hint of an inner stirring. Of new life. But, it is only a soft stirring. And, I don't know what it means or where it leads. And so I wait... pray...listen.


Breathe on me, breath of God,
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love what Thou dost love,
And do what Thou wouldst do.

Breathe on me, breath of God,
Until my heart is pure,
Until with Thee I will one will,
To do and to endure.

Breathe on me, breath of God,
Blend all my soul with Thine,
Until this earthly part of me
Glows with Thy fire divine.

Breathe on me, breath of God,
So shall I never die,
But live with Thee the perfect life
Of Thine eternity.

Edwin Hatch