I invite you to see my latest Luke Live Online! on YouTube and the reflection on the hand of God in all things to rejuvenate, transform, make good on the human condition and the vagaries of Nature. Faith –all the great faiths of the world invite trust in Providence. Every birth is willed by God –not its imperfections or illnesses–as a beginning toward transformation in this world of seeing, feeling, touching, being into an eternal communion. Go to:

Here’s a copy of the poem I read around in The Atlantic issue September 2018. The poem is by Carl Dennis and may be found in his collection NIGHT SCHOOL.

PROVIDENCE 

By Carl Dennis from his collection NIGHT SCHOOL 

PROVIDENCE seems to be one of the words

That shouldn’t be mourned as it falls from fashion.

Goodbye to the notion that whatever happens

Is meant to happen, foreseen and approved

By a thoughtful heaven.  A word that’s proven

Invaluable to the privileged when they’ve cautioned

The less-than-privileged to be content

With the portion that happenstance has assigned them. 

It’s the work of providence that you were born

To a sharecropping family on a hardscrabble farm,

Not to the family that owns the land. 

Goodbye to the word, and yet its disappearance

Might make it harder for the sharecropper’s daughter

To explain to her husband’s wealthy parents

Her reluctance to take a pill guaranteed

To make the baby boy she’s soon to bear

More handsome and clever than he would be otherwise.

Providential, meaning the baby for her

Is a gift meant to be welcomed as is, not a kit

To be assembled at home in the latest style.

A gift whether or not he later looks back

On his birth as providential or as a simple

Piece of good luck, providing him with a mother

Who would urge him to do the work

That pleased him most,

Work she believed he was meant to do. 

For more Commentary and Reflection on Luke 2, go to:

Commentary # 1 on Luke 2: 8-10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TeQ5jkm2Uc&list=OLAK5uy_kSpuk0fEKreIIDqDkJpGy2fzWsBz7hJ2I&index=10 Additional Reflections on Jesus’ Birth follow in Commentary # 2 and # 3 Below.REPLY

Commentary # 2: MORE reflections: The Angels Sing for You, too! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoA1mPC1g1w&list=OLAK5uy_kSpuk0fEKreIIDqDkJpGy2fzWsBz7hJ2I&index=11REPLY

ANGELS WE HAVE HEARD ON HIGH https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3KB__57iYWVIvWsnmIyPow

1. What was your experience of applying ANGELS WE HAVE HEARD ON HIGH to your birth?  

2.  For Christians, combining stories of Jesus’ birth and our births confirms our belief that His story is ours, and our stories are His.  The result: the very best of who we are reflects “Christ in us” to others.  Did the song exercise help you own that?  Why or why not?

3. For listeners of other faiths or philosophies, what song (and /or literature) would you use to affirm your birth, your goodness–the best of who you are? In what ways do you understand your scriptures to point to the ways you understand yourselves?

4. For Christians, what about our belief that God shares in all aspects of being human with us through Jesus, brings you the most comfort?  The most? What aspects of this belief that we call “The Incarnation” may challenge you or trouble you?