Something deep in our souls longs for a light in the dark. At Christmas it spills out on Christmas trees, and Advent wreaths, and twinkling lights on houses. We desperately want to believe the words that angels proclaim in the night.
This Christmas season I have felt like the night is long and dark. All throughout December and leading up to Christmas Eve I felt like I was carrying heavy burdens. My heart aches for the girl who has no home, and it breaks for the man on the street who has fallen again into the addiction he hates. My stomach turns at the poverty and desperation all around me, contrasted with the Christmas lights and holiday music. Maybe the tears fall from your eyes too as you ache for the ones you serve.
The whole world groans under the weight of darkness.
Is this the groan that God heard from heaven on high? The cries of humanity thrown out into the night?
Is this why He could not stand by? Divinity stepped down, down into the groaning darkness and was born as a mortal child. This is the wonder of Christmas.
God born like us. Born to change our story, and to stop our cries.
When we hear the groans around us, we have a way to answer. There is a peace to be preached, and an unlikely joy to be found and celebrated.
We love the Christmas lights because they defy the darkness. They whisper "hope" into the deepest night. They show us that we can overcome every day of the year.
And so we light the Advent candles, and we sing the angel's song.
Amen, sister! The light has shone into the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it. (Sometimes it seems to look like it has though...) May God increase our faith as we see the difficult things in the world.
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