All rights reserved
© Rosalind C Hughes and over the water, 2011-2026. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Rosalind C Hughes and over the water, with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
A Family Like Mine: Biblical Stories of Love, Loss, and Longing
https://bookstore.upperroom.org/Products/1921/a-family-like-mine.aspxWhom Shall I Fear: Urgent Questions for Christians in an Age of Violence
https://www.amazon.com/Whom-Shall-Fear-Questions-Christians/dp/0835819671-
Recent Posts
Archives
Categories
RevGalBlogPals
Meta
Tag Archives: Christmas
Wise
By the time you reached the star-struck place
you were ready to crawl in on bended knees
and babble your praises like a newborn;
for the foolishness of God’s incarnation
was wiser than you or I ever could imagine. Continue reading
Christmas Eve 2025
This is the message of Christmas, isn’t it – not so much the drawing in and closing down, the drawing of the curtains against the dark and cold, as it is the opening up; the labour of effacing little by little the things that come between us and keep us from seeing the glory of God incarnate in our neighbours, from realizing the strength and endurance of God’s love, the capacity and tenacity of God’s mercy. When the very heavens are opened for angels to sing to shepherds on the earth, how can we be short of room for one another, friend and stranger, lover and lost, family and fallen alike? Continue reading
A Christmas Message
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was the cry of a newborn infant, swaddled in cloth and laid in a feeding trough. … Christmas. It’s a … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, homily, sermon
Tagged Christmas, Incarnation, Jesus, John 1:1-14
Leave a comment
Emmanuel
I misremembered the title of the children’s story that I cited in the middle of this reflection: I think it still works. In the Advent to Christmas stories we find a lot of fear, and a balancing dose of faith. … Continue reading
Posted in advent meditations, homily, lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Advent, Christmas, Emmanuel, God, grief, Incarnation, Jesus, love, picture books
Leave a comment
Word, words, wordless
In the beginning, says John, and you can tell that he is thinking back to that old story of beginnings, the one in Genesis that begins, In the beginning… And so as God spoke light into creation, and life, so … Continue reading
Posted in lectionary reflection, sermon
Tagged Christmas, Incarnation, John 1:1-18, John's Prologue, ministry of presence
Leave a comment
Not in glory
Not in glory but in the gloom of winter glimmers a light born of love, warmed by love, worshipped by angels; humble beginnings swaddled and held close promise the earth and deliver the heavens.
Posted in advent meditations, holy days, poetry, prayer
Tagged Advent, Christmas, Incarnation, longest night
Leave a comment
A prayer for Christmas Day
Gracious God, We hear of Christmas by candlelight in Kiev; we think on the borrowed cave, rude shelter in which to bear life. We hear of twins reunited – thank God! – with their family before Christmas. We cannot help wonder … Continue reading
A perfect angel
That was when the angel first realized that they might just have made a smidgen of an error, a bit of a mistake.
“Not that way,” the angel cried into the increasingly empty night. “You’re supposed to run towards Bethlehem! A baby has been born this night and, oh, what have I done?” Continue reading
Nativity
Not by might the almighty shoulders a way into the world, but on borrowed strength, the muscles of his mother conspiring to bring him to birth; Not by right does he claim his throne but humbles himself to the stable stall and is fed by … Continue reading
Posted in holy days, poetry, prayer, sermon preparation
Tagged Christmas, nativity, peace
Leave a comment
The gift
Wrapped in flesh and tenderness – the fragile feet, the faltering hands – a hunger was born, squalling for a landscape flowing with milk and kindness. Little did the wise know, still less kings that this small and helpless this … Continue reading
over the water 