My favorite is that a woman was the first to encounter the risen Jesus, and he tells her to relay the news to his “brethren”, despite the fact that women were not regarded as reliable sources of information at that time.

Warm gingerbread and mushroom coffee blessing to all. I was sooo close to being the third person in my family to cut off a portion of their finger this week but I managed not to, somehow.

There is more humanity in the eye of a traumatized pig than that man.

Like people say “Jesus Christ” when reading a headline about republicans continuing to pretend that the Epstein files are a nothing burger, or seeing photos of starving children in Gaza or Sudan, or when your uncle says something so racist or sexist your at a loss for words.

It’s generally said when we, believers or non, come into contact with something morally or spiritually reprehensible that we are literally asking God to intervene: the unsaid part is “make this not be so”.

We can’t be perfect, we can’t always make the correct decisions, we are fallen humans living in a corrupted reality. But each moment we are reborn, and have another chance to live more in faith, have more hope, and act more in love towards all of creation.

Love is faith and hope actualized in your present moment. Every moment you have the opportunity to live by faith, to renew your hope, and act as if perfection is a reality, despite all worldly indications of the opposite. For every moment to be “a foretaste of glory divine” for yourself and others.

Hope is looking forward, with complete assurance, to the day when all will finally make sense, when we will be made whole, when the corrupted nature of our current reality will be healed and renewed, to when the mirror of our lives will be perfected.

A Christian nation would be a nation of faith, hope, and love, but above all love. Love for God, which is, by its very nature, radical love of self and of everyone else, and for all of creation.

A Christian nation would value learning, the arts and crafts. It would value handiwork, craftsmanship, and labor dedicated to beauty and sharing human creativity and knowledge.

A Christian national would not measure its success by economic growth. A Christian nation would strive to only produce what is needed for the sustainment of life without waste, destruction of resources, pollution, or abuse of workers.

A Christian nation would act like the early church. It would live in community, care for each other, care for those in need, and show radical loving kindness to its neighbors.

A Christian nation wouldn’t need to regulate or deregulate environmental rules, because care and stewardship of creation would be the primary directive of mankind. Polluting waters, wanton deforestation, and abuse of workers to extract resources from the earth would be anathema.

A Christian nation wouldn’t need to have a free lunch program for school kids because, again, the idea of a child going hungry in any scenario outside of war or famine would be anathema.

A Christian nation wouldn’t legislate against homosexual marriages because marriage would solely be the business of the two people choosing to commit their lives to each other before God and their communities, the government would not be involved at all.

A Christian nation would not need nationalized healthcare because every community would willingly provide healthcare to all who happen to need it. A Christian nation wouldn’t need SNAP benefits because it would be an embarrassment to any community to have a person be in want of nourishment.

A Christian nation would not attempt to overthrow democratically elected governments, it would not need to. It would not bomb supposed drug boats because there would be not need to. It would not build a wall between itself and another nation because there would be need to.

When we are still, calm, and at peace with ourselves and everyone and everything around us, we are a perfect mirror, reflecting the light and true form of Christ to everyone we interact with. But even in our imperfection we still can reflect the light of God, but not as wholly.