Prayer: "The Unsettling Season" by Donald Shelby

God, we are as confounded as Joseph and Mary, as busy as the innkeepers, as lonely as the shepherd, as frightened as Herod, as wayfaring as the Magi. Turn us again to the place where, with quietness, you wrap up your truth and promise, your love and salvation in the Child born in a rude stable. We would ponder these things as the noise and clamor of the world is stilled for a time and there is a peace that settles deep within us. Bring us to Bethlehem, to the place where he was homeless but where we are truly at home. Amen.