A Prayer for Christmas Eve

The magi are packing their bags.  The angels are in final rehearsals.  Mary's feeling the baby kick and move every day now, even as she and Joseph prepare for the upcoming trip to Bethlehem.  And, for congregations everywhere, Christmas worship planning is moving into full swing.

To help make yours a little easier, here's a lovely little Christmas Eve prayer for you to incorporate as your own, tweak to your context, or use as a point of departure.  It's taken from SALT's new Advent Devotional Coloring Book, a beautiful new resource featuring meditations on scripture, practices for enlivening the season, an enchanting poem by Mary Oliver, and a whole lot more.

So, without further ado, here's a little Christmas inspiration:

Loving God,
For you animals prepared a bed
For you the heavens shone brightly and the stars clapped their hands
For you angels sang to help calm your crying
For you shepherds stood watch and marveled at how small you were
For you wise ones came running from the east, and when they saw you,
They fell down on their knees
Because you were Almighty God and yet you were so vulnerable
You were God and yet you had a soft spot on your head
God with Mary’s milk on your breath, wrapped up in swaddling clothes
God, creator of everything, now born of flesh and blood to be with us
Emmanuel, God with us

Hope is ours
Peace is on the way
Sorrow has lost its grip
Love has flooded every heart
Emmanuel, God with us

Light has come back into the world
And the darkness of despair, and war, and hurt, and hate shall not overcome it

Tonight you are with us
And we will never be the same
We will be more tender
We will protect the vulnerable
We will stand watch
We will come running to soothe the pain, to befriend the lonely, to lift up the lowly
To live as your people, to walk with you in love

We pray all of this in the name of Emmanuel, God with us
In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Here's wishing you and yours all the best with your Advent and Christmas worship planning - thank you for your prayerful, poetic leadership.  And, as always, let us know your questions, ideas, and how we can help support your good work.

Peace and soon-to-be mistletoe,

The SALT Team