{"id":76,"date":"2020-02-05T21:50:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-05T21:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress2\/index.php\/2020\/02\/05\/13-magi\/"},"modified":"2020-02-05T21:50:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T21:50:00","slug":"13-magi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agoodknowing.com\/index.php\/2020\/02\/05\/13-magi\/","title":{"rendered":"13 Magi"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n13. Magi<\/span><\/div>\n
\nGod is alive; magic is afoot<\/span><\/div>\n
\nGod is alive; magic is afoot<\/span><\/div>\n
\nGod is afoot; magic is alive<\/span><\/div>\n
\nAlive is afoot….<\/span><\/div>\n
\nMagic never died.<\/span><\/div>\n
\nBuffy Sainte-Marie<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nT’was the season.<\/span><\/div>\n
\nI recall with joy the nativity story and remember my story now nestled deep inside his coming. In the remembering my eyes are drawn upwards and outwards to see the scale of this glorious intervention, to feel the stirring of hope in creation. I hear the antiphonal sky-song between the Angels and the weary world.  The one whose arrival they heralded has come, the <\/span>desire of the nations<\/span> now on the earth. Haggai 2:7<\/span><\/div>\n
\nThose with eyes to see saw the shift. There were some Magi from the east who were well conversant with the created things in the heavenlies. Being conversant the Magi heard from the heavenlies the news others were deaf to: <\/span>the Messiah has come. <\/span><\/div>\n
\nAfter Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem <\/span>2 <\/span><\/span>and asked, \u201cWhere is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. <\/span>Matthew 2:1-2<\/span><\/div>\n
\nThere’s a question I can feel growing larger and louder. Like an itch in my gut somewhere it sounds a little like this: Cassie, are you grown up enough for magic yet? Are you ready? I remember whispers from my childhood that became shouts at times. I remember books that were doorways and seeing the Thunder Man* for the first time.  Finding a teeny dead bird under a grate, and knowing it could be spoken back to life. I remember the Spirit saying come away, don\u2019t go too far, too deep. In the either-or discipleship of my then-love for Jesus I decided all that is not good<\/span>. I didn’t hear the whisper that I was not ready.<\/span><\/div>\n
\nBut, God is alive, and every time I read the opening words of the gospel of John something in me reawakens and the world is crackling with magic, and I can\u2019t hold back the desire to lean in. Then there was a year many things shifted, a door began to open, and the question formed: <\/span>are you grown up enough yet?<\/span><\/div>\n
\nSo, I let go of either-or, I make my answer: yes. I am no longer afraid because I can\u2019t fall out of the One who holds the whole universe inside of Him. I am drawn towards Him, the north star, just like the Magi of the East were. I read:<\/span><\/div>\n
\nIn the beginning was the Logos…..<\/span><\/div>\n
\n…… and in that moment I realise I can stay in my child<\/span>like<\/span>-ness and wonder at it all and believe everything is possible. I can leave behind my child<\/span>ish<\/span>ness. My tendency towards control, towards domination. I can <\/span>know<\/span> this Word, this Logos, the Christ. Like the Magi from the East I can both gaze upon him, and even more mysteriously <\/span>become like him. <\/span>(2 Corinthians 3:18) The limits are removed.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n……And the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God. He was with God in the beginning. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. <\/span>John 1<\/span><\/div>\n
\nAll I can think of now is the prayer flowing from the heart of the Lover toward the Father in John 17:20. The deep, deep longing that we would be one, as they are one. <\/span><\/div>\n
\nWhy? <\/span><\/div>\n
\nIn the words of Habbakuk, so the earth would be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God. Jesus’ longing, his desire expressed in this prayer, is so big I feel dizzy: <\/span><\/div>\n
\nI pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. <\/span><\/div>\n
\nI have given them the glory you gave me, that they may be one as we are one- I in them and you in me \u2013 so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. <\/span><\/div>\n
\nThe Father is in Jesus and Jesus is in the Father and we are in both of them like a bespoke<\/span> set of Russian dolls.  It is his glory, which he received from the Father and has given to us, that makes us one. This unity, as it was<\/i> preached, seemed mainly concerned about whether the children were playing nicely together and I missed the heart of the 3God. Their longing is that unity begins with each of us knowing we are the beloved of the 3God and united with them.  Then it can flow out as we realise that we all with unveiled faces are looking and loving in the same direction.  <\/span><\/div>\n
\nThis is why the magic, the logos, the mystery is beckoning me. Because somehow being so swallowed up in love is the key to everyone, everywhere, knowing. Our consummation together. Each still individually known with a book and a destiny. No longer fighting to defend our edges, our definition, because we realise that it cannot be stolen from us.  Surrendering to our togetherness, our familiarity, the one womb that formed us. <\/span>That way the world gets to know. <\/span><\/div>\n
\nThere is a forbidden magic that wields control and has no affinity with love. A magic deeply connected to the wrong tree. <\/span><\/div>\n
\nBut there is also a magic I experience when I surrender everything to him. When I am unafraid to embrace the mystery of union not just with him but with all that bows down to Him in heaven and on earth and under the earth. It\u2019s a magic I only understand for the moments I leave the seat of judgement to him. When I forget to be afraid because I believe. When I meet for the first time everytime the living flame of love. I am changed.<\/span><\/div>\n
\nThe mystery of the incarnation, the magic of conception as Spirit-lit life in the womb of a girl, the manger-throne with rich and poor, shepherds and foreigners, all gathered around God-as-man. The magic that closed gaps, broke down walls, and joined inside and outside, heaven and earth. Reconciliation. Reunion. Redemption. One. Shalom.<\/span><\/div>\n
\nT’was the season we remembered the dream of the Father. <\/span><\/div>\n
\nTis the season we remember the prayer of the Son.<\/span><\/div>\n
\nThat we would be one<\/span><\/div>\n
\nAnd I have a question in my mind that goes something like this… does 3 become 4?<\/span>
\n
<\/span>
\n*Do you remember seeing things when you were a child that made you wonder? <\/span><\/div>\n

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13. Magi God is alive; magic is afoot God is alive; magic is afoot God is afoot; magic is alive Alive is afoot…. Magic never died. Buffy Sainte-Marie T’was the season. I recall with joy the nativity story and remember my story now nestled deep inside his coming. In the remembering my eyes are drawn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agoodknowing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agoodknowing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agoodknowing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agoodknowing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agoodknowing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agoodknowing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agoodknowing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agoodknowing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agoodknowing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}