Breath of Heaven, Amy Grant

Christmas extends to the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Like other pivotal seasons of our faith it gives us a chance to ponder, pray with, and digest the call to enter into the mystery it represents, not only in the lives of Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth, Zechariah, Simeon, John and Jesus, et al, but in our own as well. The dimension of reality we know as Word or Spirit, that dimension of mystery that permeates, enlivens, and grounds all of reality is ever-dynamic and seeks ways to become more articulate within creation. It seeks to "overshadow" each of us so that we may each truly become God's word made flesh, a new creation, the imago dei we are made to be.

There is an immensity in this call, an incommensurability when measured against our own weakness and personal poverty and we each meet it with a variety of emotions, concerns, and attitudes as we seek to bring our whole selves to it -- just as Mary (or so many of the other participants in the story of Christmas and Christianity) did. The journey we make to answer this call is necessary and the impulse for it comes from deep within us. But this journey is also frightening, even terrifying, because we know we are not strong enough to accomplish it all by ourselves and yet, it is our journey to make. Amy Grant's "Breath of Heaven" captures all of this so very well!!