Looking to the new year

(Children’s Defense Fund) – The end of the holiday season and the start of the new year are always a time to prepare for new beginnings. The terror and turmoil that began in the first few hours of this year fueled even more uncertainty about the path ahead right now. But once again, one of the lessons of the holy season of light at the darkest time of the year is that this is the time when change begins.I share the words of beloved theologian Howard Thurman, who speaks to this moment in The Work of Christmas:Related Stories When the song of the angels is stilled,When the star in the sky is gone,When the kings and princes are home,When the shepherds are back with their flocks,The work of Christmas begins:To find the lost,To heal the broken,To feed the hungry,To release the prisoner,To rebuild the nations,To bring peace among the people,To make music in the heart.I also share again an adapted version of Madeleine L’Engle’s poem, First Coming (used by permission in my book Guide My Feet as published in Imagining the Word), that speaks to this moment and our world:God did not wait till the world was ready,till . ....