Saturday, December 25, 2010

christmas eve

Well, techincally it's Christmas. But since I refuse to start the next day before I go to bed, it is still Christmas Eve.
My house is quiet. and dark, except the the tree and the mantle. I have Christmas Carols playing on Pandora. The snow is silently and magically falling. In the stillness there is peace.
I would be lying if I said this was the best Christmas ever. It isn't even close. Not by a long shot.  I think we (those at my house) are feeling the oppression of disease. Everette's mom is one and half weeks into her first chemo. She is feeling pretty ok now, but her white counts are low and I think we are all waiting, our breath caught in our chest.
A lovely women in our congregation, and I do mean lovely, quietly left her body yesterday. She passed away, in her home, next to her beloved husband. Just like that. Silently, without warning, and with no parting words. But she leaves a grieving husband, and a son, and grandchildren.

Today, somewhere across the country, someone I do not know, and does not know me, lost their sweet baby boy. His tiny body only days old could not fight any longer, and he too left a grieving family.

And now Christmas is here. And it seems unwelcome, an inconvenient nuisance.
And yet it is not. Because it is the beginning of hope.
I think it is great that Jesus came as a baby and this is the season we celebrate his birth.  but kind of.. who cares?
"A people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned." Isaiah 9:2

A light. A great light. A tiny flicker of light surrounded by deep darkness. A beacon of hope, and salvation shattering the darkness.  A source of comfort and peace. A lamp, and a torch.
I have been thinking a lot about Jesus being the light of the world. I think because, we are all familiar with darkness. It surrounds us.  And we all know what power the light holds.

John 1:4-5 "In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."
Amen


John 1:14 "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."
The Word of God became flesh.  I think an important thing to know, that before the birth of Christ, there had been 400 years of silence from God. There were no prophets. No one was speaking prophetic words. For 400 long years the Israelites as a people heard nothing from the Lord Almighty.
And then... the word... became flesh. And made his dwelling among the people.

praise God.
for the Light of the World, and the Living Word, in the form of a baby.
ok. my bed is calling me.
Mighty Christmas!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

"No ear may hear His coming
but in this world of sin
where meek souls will receive Him still
the dear Christ enters in,"

Anonymous said...

You are my lamp, O Lord. The Lord turns my darkness into light...

Let the light of your face shine upon us, O Lord...

You, O Lord. keep my lamp burning, my God turns my darkness into light...

The commands of the Lord are radiant giving light to the eyes...

Anonymous said...

The Lord is my light...

For with you is the fountain of life, in your light we see light...

For you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God
in the light of life...

You Are Resplendent With Light...

Blessed are those who ...walk in the light of your presence, O Lord

He wraps himself in light as with a garment...

Anonymous said...

THE UNFOLDING OF YOUR WORDS GIVES LIGHT

PSALM 119:130

Anonymous said...

even the darkness will not be dark to you

the light will shine like the day

for darkness is as light to you

for you created my inmost being

you knit me together in my mother's womb

i praise you

your eyes saw my unformed body

all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be

search me, o God, and know my heart,
test me
know my anxious thoughts

see if there be any offensive way in me

lead me in the way everlasting
for i am wonderfully made