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Reflection:

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Paying attention to our breathing is at the heart of any kind of centering prayer and mindfulness practice. Our minds love to live in the future or the past… and to focus on your breathing is a way of anchoring yourself in this very real present.

The Hebrew language has a word for breath - 𝙧𝙪𝙖𝙘𝙝.

It’s the same word for wind and Spirit. It’s a multifaceted word alluding to the hidden animating Spirit from whom all life emanates. To participate in this world, with the seen and unseen, is to breathe in and out the air that gives life to our bodies, and with that breathing to become aware of the Spirit who gives life to that deep part of us as well.

Throughout the Scriptures, the place to meet the Divine has taken many forms. From a wrestling match, to a bush, to a mountain, to a tent, to a trunk, to a temple - but probably the most unexpected form would be in the very lungs of a baby.

One of the most amazing experiences is holding a sleeping baby on your chest. Feeling their little lungs move in and out. . . partaking in the same 𝙧𝙪𝙖𝙘𝙝 rhythm as you do. 

You are not in charge of your heartbeat. You are not in charge of your breathing. So much of being alive is not up to your will power.

Imagine being Mary or Joseph . . . holding your newborn baby. Listening to His little breaths. Aware of your own breaths. Three sets of inhales and exhales braided quietly together. The sound of a new family.

In.

Out.

In.

Out.

What does it say about a God who is willing to be this present with us? A God who is everywhere at once, yet who has been present with humanity in a box (ark of the covenant), in a body (skull and heart), in a blessing (cup and cross), and in our very breath. 

“Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

Maybe the place we can experience the wonder of this season is in the moments we stop and listen to our very own breathing. To pay attention to the rhythm of 𝙧𝙪𝙖𝙘𝙝 already inside us . . . and to realize that the Divine with us is not in a building we must journey to, but is in the animating breath of what makes us alive.

…

* this meditation is an excerpt from the book Honest Advent.