“The manger in Bethlehem proves one thing: God can be born anywhere.” –Father Gregory Boyle, author of The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness
God Can Be Born Anywhere
God can be born in our disorganized, distracted, messy lives.
God can be born in our fractured relationships.
God can be born in our fear and anger and despair.
And when God is born, God enters into the mess and the pain and the shame. God does this knowingly and willingly and lovingly. Not with disdain or disapproval. Not with chastising words or exasperated expressions. God is born into the disorder of our everyday lives because God loves us.
And when God is born, God’s love begins to transform our messy lives, to bring forth beauty, to repair, to heal all the wounded places.
The Whole Language
I’ve been reading Gregory Boyle’s most recent book, The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness. Boyle has worked for decades among gang members in Los Angeles, so his stories on the surface are of lives very different than mine. He writes about tattoo removals and young men shot in the stomach and women in a fistfight and poverty and addiction and despair. But I relate to every one of these stories because Boyle’s book is also just story after story about God’s love for people who are scared to believe that we are lovable. Over and over again, Boyle insists that God loves us as we are, comes to us as we are, heals us, and returns us to wholeness with delight in who we are.
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