✨ A Benediction for Orthodox Christmas

Come to Bethlehem — Taste and See the Grace of God

Come to Bethlehem.
Not the Bethlehem of postcards,
but the Bethlehem of Scripture —
dusty, crowded, overlooked,
the place where heaven slipped into the world
without asking permission.

Come to the manger,
where the Ancient of Days
rests in the arms of a teenage girl
who stitched revelation into resilience.

Come to the Child,
laid in a feeding trough —
not because He is small,
but because the world is,
and the world is His.

Come to the valley,
where Rachel weeps
and Mary carries hope through her tears.
Where the Physician breathes the air of the sick,
the Lifegiver walks behind the dead,
the Light sits in the shadows,
and the Shepherd grows up among the lost.

Come to Nazareth,
the town the world dismissed —
“Can anything good come from there?”
And watch God answer –
with a life that will heal the nations.

Come to the mountain,
where shepherds proclaim,
Joseph obeys,
Mary ponders,
Magi bow,
angels shout,
and elders bless.

Come to the Child
who is Savior,
Christ,
Lord,
Immanuel —
God with us in every valley,
God with us on every mountain,
God with us in every hidden place.

Come to Bethlehem.
Taste and see the grace of God.
The glory is coming,
but the grace is already here.

And may the One who entered our world in humility
enter your heart with peace,
your home with light,
your days with strength,
and your valleys with His presence.

Amen.