Dear Friends:

When I was growing up, I always used to look forward to Life Magazine’s “Year in Pictures” which would make its way to the newsstands right around Christmas.  The last edition was published about 20 years ago, so if you are too young to remember what these colorful retrospectives offered, I encourage you to do a google search!

I wonder, what would Life’s “year in pictures” look like for 2020? I imagine there would be images of “Closed” signs on storefronts, children learning on computer screens, and reporters wearing masks. There would be scenes of protest marches and statues coming down, panoramas of election campaign rallies and polling stations, close ups of exhausted hospital workers and cautious receptionists behind Lucite screens.  What would your “year in pictures” look like? 

As I think about all the images, bits and pieces of memories and fragments of experience that have been manifested in my own life this past year, I find myself thinking also of something Luke tells us in his Gospel: that after the birth of Jesus, after the singing of the angels, after the arrival of the marveling shepherds, "Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart" (Luke 2:19, NRSV).

As the Christmas season unfolds - and I always take comfort that Christmas is actually a season and not just a single day - I will be drawing inspiration from Mary and spend time pondering the pictures of this past year, looking for what stands out among the images as I sort through and arrange them.  I will be looking for what might be the makings of a pattern or a rhythm in the collage they make, and how they might illustrate a new way into the coming year.

And you? As Christmas unfolds between now and Epiphany, is there some pondering you might do? What might you create from the fragments of memory and experience, the pictures and images that this year has held for you?  How would you arrange and sort them?  What does your own heart most need as we enter into this new season? 

Whatever it is that you discover, I pray that the coming year brings you a deeper and truer connection with God, a greater trust in your own belovedness, a stronger will to love others, and hearts more full of gratitude, compassion, and wonder.

In Christ,

 Amelie+