The Place Where the Divine Meets Us
Poet, speaker and pastor Will Small reflects on the good news of Jesus’ birth for our common home.
AUNTY ALISON OVEREEM
For our fourteenth Advent 2023 devotional, Aunty Alison Overeem reflects on the birth of Jesus weaving together the promise of hope and renewal.
Weaving Together
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.’ But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ The angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.’ Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her.
Luke 1:26-38
Weaving is a beautiful expression of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and holds significance in our communities. For me, as I reflect on this Bible passage I see this vision of being woven together through the great joy and hope we have in Jesus - the Lord with us. Jesus sits with us in the weaving, the renewing of our common home, bringing the hope and possibility of oneness, and through Him makes all things possible. The basket is our oneness, the threads of the call of the Creator. It may sometimes be frayed but all is possible as we sit together with, for and through the Lord.
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The Woven Oneness of Place
Woven home
Weaving renewal
Weaving the threads of our common home
Weaving the Creator's call
Of the central cultural call of all
The common home and place
Grounded and surrounded with hope and renewal
The tirrina/basket of oneness
Holding, Healing, Twining,
Sharing, Learning, Unlearning,
Weaving, Unweaving,
Leaning into with and for each other
Strengthening each strand through and with relation
Through and with the promise of hope, renewal and birth
Holding each other in the vulnerability and strength
In the hope and possibility
In the weaving
In the coming together
In the oneness of individual threads,
but ones connected with, and for each other,
comes strength, safety, security and belonging in common grounded place
Each thread speaking and holding a unique strand
A unique story narrative
Full of hope, intent and impact
Heard and held in the oneness
Heard and held in the weaving together of a common home
Each one being
Each one knowing
Each one holding
Each one nurturing the other
And in the woven comes the oneness
The weaving of voices
We hold you in the basket Gabriel
We hold you in the hope Creator
The weaving of shared wisdom
The weaving of oneness
As each thread is woven in
It gently weaves with another
Bringing all the stories of hope together
May the weaving of our common basket and hope be our faith
May we continue to weave the threads of solidarity through our shared oneness
May the ancient wisdom and knowledge of the lands now called Australia, be a gift and guide to us all in the oneness of connection, relationship and in the woven
Weaving together, the head and heart, in the wellness of oneness basket of healing and hope and rebirth
Know you are held in the weaving of the wisdom and knowledge of the oldest living culture on earth
In the oneness we may at times lose sight of possibility
But as we weave into this verse the Creator God weaves hope
Through the weaving of
Hope, renewal and birth
Holding and keeping
Knowing the Creator's love and the gift of the birth of Jesus
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Weaving art work shared alongside Aunty Alison's poem by Grace Williams, a proud palawa woman from Lutruwita Tasmania, and Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC) Tasmania team member.
Aunty Alison Overeem is a proud palawa woman from South-East Tasmania who is driven by culture, family, empowerment and creating safe spaces to build hope and healing. Alison is passionate about raising awareness of Aboriginal culture and history and the rights of women in society and has previously been a member of the Tasmanian Women’s Council. She has also served as Director of the Aboriginal Children’s Centre, and as the Leprena Manager, Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC Tasmania). Most recently Alison has served as a member of the UAICC National Executive, Uniting Care board of Australia, Uniting Church Assembly Standing Committee, Advocate for the Walking Together circle for the National UCA Assembly, and as co-chair of the UCA Vic Tas Walking Together committee.
This devotional is the fourteenth in a series of daily email devotionals for Advent 2023. This year's series reflects on the longing, hope, and beauty of God’s ‘Common Home’ being realised, revealed, and renewed through the birth of Jesus.
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